It’s been close to a month since CNN President Jeff Zucker resigned after revealing a consensual relationship with a fellow executive at the network, Allison Gollust, who has also departed the cable news channel.
CNN has had interim leadership through these last few weeks, but they might be having a permanent president soon. According to Puck News’ Dylan Byers and confirmation from CNN’s Brian Stelter, Chris Licht will be named the network’s new president.
Licht has plenty of experience working at major networks as he’s formerly of “Morning Joe” and “CBS This Morning,” and now the person in charge of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“Hiring an outsider, too, may help recalibrate the network toward its centrist origins. It will also certainly represent to the talent inside CNN that a new sheriff is in town,” Byers wrote.
An announcement of Licht’s hiring is expected soon as it will reportedly be announced at, or ahead of, a special Discovery shareholders meeting on March 11. Licht has a deal with CBS that expires in April.
Once Licht officially takes over, he’ll have a crack at making his first marquee hire for the 9 pm hour that has been vacant since the firing of Chris Cuomo.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
