Former conservative reporter-turned-liberal-media apologist Oliver Darcy spent the last few days leaking out news from his former employer about a new direction for the TV side of CNN that, while not radical in changing its liberal ideology, would be radical in personnel movement with Wolf Blitzer poised to host mornings and Jim Acosta being banished to midnight Eastern.
In a year that’s slated to include hundreds of layoffs for the network whose ratings have cratered in recent years and accelerated after Election Day, Darcy said in his Status website Wednesday that the 76-year-old Blitzer has a new contract and would team with 11:00 a.m. Eastern hour CNN Newsroom host Pamela Brown for a two-hour show from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
It’s unclear what its title would be and if Blitzer’s long-running, early-evening show title of The Situation Room would survive. Blitzer — who’s arguably the single most recognizable CNN anchor or even personality of all time — has had that show since 2005 and been with the network since 1990.
The other major headline came Thursday night as Darcy shared Acosta “received a peculiar telephone call from CNN chief Mark Thompson” on “early Wednesday night” with what he described as “a sudden and strange proposal” of “move your show” from weekdays at 10:00 a.m. Eastern “to midnight and anchor it until 2am ET.”
Yes, dear readers, Thompson wants to keep Fake News Jim on the sinking ship that is CNN, but stash him away in what Darcy dubbed the “Siberia of television news,” seen live only by cogent west-coast viewers, those stuck abroad with CNN as one of the lone English-language channels in your hotel room, and news junkies unable to sleep.
Fitting considering this was what Acosta was up to on Thursday. Perhaps it was an act of defiance and middle finger to his bosses!
Regardless, Darcy clearly spoke with either Acosta on background or someone close to him. Needless to say, the insufferable cartoon character isn’t happy (click “expand):
The offer caught Acosta off guard. He had no reason to believe that his current show would be on the chopping block. In fact, his ratings have historically been some of the network's strongest, both when he was anchoring on the weekends and now at 10am during the weekdays. On some days, Acosta even out-rates some of CNN’s prime time programs. So why force him to move his show to the 12am hour, a time slot occupied by virtually zero other hosts in the cable news business? The move would effectively exile Acosta to the Siberia of television news. He'd be manning down a shift when much of the country is fast asleep and viewership is at its lowest.
Darcy cynically chalked it up to Thompson “curry[ing] favor with Donald Trump, who very much despises the CNN anchor” and cited a “media executive” as believing this will be a peace offering or “throw[ing] a bone” to Trump.”
The official reasoning, Darcy suggested, would be someone’s hour had to be sacrificed to make room for the new, two-hour show with Blitzer and Brown and still keep CNN News Central — which currently is helmed by John Berman, Kate Bolduan, and Sara Sidner.
The midnight Eastern hour having live programming wouldn’t be unprecedented. In 2015, the network made an attempt with CNN Newsroom Live from LA, anchored by John Vause and Isha Sesay.
A more minor change considered is another promotion for Kasie Hunt to take the 4:00 p.m. Eastern hour and bump Jake Tapper’s The Lead from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
It’d be ironic for Hunt as she was originally brought to CNN in August 2021 following eight years at NBC and MSNBC to host her own show in that very hour....on CNN+ (and we all know how that turned out).
With CNN+ having been aborted after just 30 days in spring 2022, Hunt remained chief national affairs analyst and fill-in host and took over Early Start in August 2023. By February 2024, her show assumed the CNN This Morning title following the morning news debacle that was the trio of Don Lemon, Kaitlan Collins, and Poppy Harlow (and briefly resuscitated by Harlow and Phil Mattingly).
As for who’d take Hunt’s two hours, Darcy’s speculation would be one of former NPR host (Hunt’s fellow CNN+ refugees) Audie Cornish and CNN International host Rahel Solomon.
