Faithful NewsBusters readers know that Piers Morgan's ratings at CNN are lousy with him typically getting trounced by Sean Hannity on Fox News and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.
As such, a report by Mediaite's Andrew Kirell Friday regarding the possibility of Morgan losing his 9PM time slot is not at all surprising:
A reliable source connected to CNN tells Mediaite that [Bill] Weir has been promised a show during the 9 p.m. ET hour — an hour that happens to be currently occupied by Piers Morgan.
According to our source, the details and timing have not yet been worked out (and we are told it will likely take “many months“) but that Weir is expected to get either half or all of the 9 p.m. slot, meaning Morgan will either move time slots or, at best, reduce to a half hour of airtime per evening. Another CNN source tells us that Weir’s show will likely launch in “late night” but our original source insists that if that happens, the goal would be to test it out for an eventual move to the 9 p.m. hour.
NewsBusters reported Friday that Weir was leaving ABC's Nightline to be replaced by Dan Harris. This is CNN's statement from just a few hours ago (via TVNewser):
CNN announced today that Bill Weir is joining the network as an anchor and Chief Innovation Correspondent. At a time when CNN is expanding the definition of news, the former anchor of ABC News’ Nightline will work with producers to develop original programming across the schedule. He will join CNN in November, and be based in New York.
Is this bad news for Morgan?
Consider that with Fox's recent change to its lineup, Morgan looks even worse.
On Thursday Megyn Kelly had 2.4 million total viewers and 376k in the all-important demographic of people aged 25-54. Maddow had 1.1 million and 288k respectively, and Morgan had only 530k and 157k respectively.
Has new CNN chief Jeffrey Zucker seen enough?
Stay tuned.
