Executive producer leaves new CNN morning show: Report
Jenny Goldsberry
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The executive producer behind CNN’s morning news program has left just two months since its launch.
Eric Hall has left CNN This Morning, hosted by Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins, in exchange for CNN Tonight with Laura Coates, according to an inside source that leaked the news to the Wrap.
Senior Vice President of Content Strategy Ryan Kadro announced the change Thursday, according to the source at the network. Hall’s newly assigned program is Lemon’s previous prime-time slot, which the host left in October.
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CNN This Morning’s premiere episode, notably saved for election week, brought in 387,000 total viewers, only 71,000 of which were of the coveted 25-54 demographic. Meanwhile, that same week the midterm election coverage on Fox News’s Fox and Friends garnered a whopping 1.45 million viewers, and MSNBC’s Morning Joe came in second with 793,000 total viewers, according to Nielsen data.
Lemon has insisted he was not pushed into the new morning show by new CNN CEO Chris Licht, who is about to hit his year anniversary with the company this spring. Licht is a “morning show impresario,” according to Lemon, who presented the host with an “opportunity that I can’t pass up.”
“I was not demoted — none of that,” Lemon said on his program when he announced his new position. “This is an opportunity. This is a promotion.”
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Other shows across the network have also been reworked or canceled, such as the long-running Sunday media program Reliable Sources.