(Headline USA) CNN axed its new morning show this week as the network’s ratings continued to crater, according to The Guardian.
CNN This Morning, launched by ousted former network CEO Chris Licht, featured anchors Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Lemon, a former prime-time star who had been exiled to the morning show, was later fired following a series of controversies that included making misogynist comments about his female co-anchors.
Collins, meanwhile, was promoted to fill the 9 p.m. time slot of another disgraced ex-host, Chris Cuomo.
Starting this week, the morning show will no longer air, and Harlow will be reassigned, new CNN boss Mark Thompson said in a memo.
The 50 or more producers and staffers on the show have also been let go and asked to reapply for different positions, the memo said.
In place of CNN This Morning, anchor Kasie Hunt’s show will now run until 7 a.m., and CNN News Central will move up to run from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Another change to CNN’s line-up: Jim Acosta, the former White House correspondent known for his testy exchanges with former President Donald Trump and his aides, will anchor a new daily one-hour show beginning at 10 a.m.
This “change in strategic direction” was “not a reflection on the talent, expertise and dedication of the New York based editorial production and operations teams who’ve worked on our morning output,” said Thompson, who took over as CNN’s CEO last August. “They’re among the best in the business.”
Rather, the shake-up was “inevitable in an industry undergoing a revolution,” he claimed.
CNN This Morning was plagued by multiple scandals thanks to Lemon, who was ousted from the network last April.
Lemon reportedly clashed with his co-hosts Harlow and Collins repeatedly, but he was finally cut loose after making derogatory comments about GOP presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy on air.
In a statement, Lemon claimed his firing was due to “larger issues” that were at play.
“I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN. I am stunned,” he wrote in a post on Twitter.
“After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” he added. “At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network.”
