Chris Licht Out at CNN Weeks After Trump Town Hall Backlash
Chris Licht #ChrisLicht
CNN’s Chief ‘Has Lost the Room,’ Anchors Approach His Boss: CNN Insider
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Embattled CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht is out of his role at the top of the news network, amid fallout over the controversial decision to broadcast former President Donald Trump’s town hall.
CNN was one of a number of outlets to report Licht’s departure, with Puck’s Dylan Byers reporting that the executive will be replaced for an interim period by CNN Films chief Amy Entelis until a new head is officially announced.
Licht was hired directly by the Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) management, which took over the channel about a year ago. At the time, the company had embarked on a quest to rebuild trust as a non-partisan channel after years of criticism of the broadcaster by Trump and his devoted army of followers. Licht, who had previously worked on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, was drafted in to replace Jeff Zucker.
However, Licht’s appointment did little to halt the hemorrhaging of viewers and reports of low morale and unease among a number of the network’s top journalists. His boss, WBD CEO David Zaslav, didn’t seem worried about the drop in viewership figures in March, telling CNN managers in a pep talk: “Ratings be damned. Let’s focus on who we are. This is our mission. This is our legacy. And this is our journey together.”
Ongoing concerns were exacerbated by the publishing on Friday of a 15,000-word profile in The Atlantic on Licht that detailed his missteps at CNN. Much space was devoted to CNN’s controversial decision to host Trump’s New Hampshire town hall, which was broadcast on May 10—one day after the one-term president was found liable by a New York jury of sexual assaulting E. Jean Carroll.
Licht reportedly apologized to staffers for the behind-the-scenes brouhaha in an editorial call on Monday, vowing to “fight like hell” to win back the trust of an apparently exasperated team at CNN.
“I know these past few days have been very hard for this group,” he said, per The New York Times. “And I fully recognize that this news cycle and my role in it overshadowed the incredible week of reporting that we just had, and distracted from the work of every single journalist in this organization. And for that, I am sorry.”
According to CNN’s senior media reporter, Oliver Darcy, Licht’s moment of attrition proved to be a case of too little, too late. In his latest Reliable Sources newsletter, Darcy stated that Licht had “lost the room” among CNN’s journalists. He described Licht as having “alienated much of the employee base and squandered the good will he had when he took helm of the network.”
Following the publication of The Atlantic’s Licht profile, for which reporter Tim Alberta was granted months of unfettered access, Darcy wrote that he spoke with “dozens of staffers” among CNN’s 3,500-strong team. “There are a wide range of emotions coursing through the halls of CNN,” he said. “Some staffers are frustrated. Others are angry. Many are sad about the awful state of affairs that has taken hold of an organization they love.”
In a detailed thread posted to Twitter on Wednesday morning, Brian Stelter, a former chief media correspondent for CNN, shared how the news was revealed behind the doors of the network.
Zaslav reportedly told staffers during an editorial call: “I met with Chris and he will be leaving CNN. We’re in the process of conducting a wide search, internally and externally, for a new leader.”
“Chris has had an amazing career,” Zaslav is reported as saying, adding that he “poured his heart and soul into this job.” Zaslav then admitted, according to Stelter, that “for a number of reasons, it didn’t work out,” and that he took “full responsibility.”
“We wish him every success and all the best,” he is reported to have concluded.
Stelter has also said that Entelis will be joined at the helm of CNN in the interim by editorial chief Virginia Moseley, programming chief Eric Sherling and CNN’s newly appointed chief operating officer David Leavy. “All three are CNN veterans who worked under Zucker, pre-dating Licht’s arrival,” he wrote.
Zaslav is said to have added that the search for a new CEO “will take months, because I think it’s important that things settle down, and we’ve gotta get it right. We [will] find a great leader, from inside or outside, and off we go.”
Newsweek has contacted representatives of CNN via email for comment.
In his newsletter, Darcy reported that “top anchors and correspondents” directly contacted Leavy, described as a “trusted lieutenant” of Zaslav, to express their concerns about Licht’s leadership.
According to Darcy, Licht “spent much of Monday having one-on-one conversations with top talent and executives.”
CNN’s decision to broadcast 2024 presidential hopeful Trump’s town hall last month was criticized by a number of media personalities, including Darcy. The network had defended its decision, saying that it was its duty to ask the former president “tough questions.”
“President Trump is the Republican frontrunner, and our job despite his unique circumstances is to do what we do best. Ask tough questions, follow up, and hold him accountable to give voters the information they need to sort through their choices. That is our role and our responsibility,” CNN told Newsweek in a statement ahead of the event.
The morning after the town hall, Licht defended the broadcast during a call to editorial staff, saying: “I absolutely, unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night,” according to multiple reports.
However, while 3 million viewers tuned in for the event, the decision spectacularly backfired in the immediate aftermath. CNN’s primetime viewership figures continued to drop, falling below those of right-wing channel Newsmax days later.
The town hall, hosted by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, was Trump’s first appearance on the news channel after the relationship between the former president and the broadcaster soured during his time in office. The town hall was strongly opposed by critics on the left of the political spectrum, who accused CNN of offering Trump a primetime platform to spread false claims about the 2020 election.
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