Months after letting longtime anchor Don Lemon go, CNN has finally announced his replacement, as well as a slew of additional lineup changes. In an effort to improve ratings and provide some stability, the struggling cable news network will move around a lot of its pieces and launch some new programming. The big changes were announced on the company’s website in an extended article that also took pretty direct aim at former CEO Chris Licht, accusing him of letting MSNBC surpass the network in ratings and ruining staff morale, among other things.
First, let’s get to the lineup changes. The biggest news is probably the network finally announcing a replacement for Don Lemon. After almost twenty years at CNN, the fashionable and free-wheeling host was let go earlier this year, not long after he was taken off the air following comments he made about women of a certain age being past their primes. Co-host Kaitlan Collins was also moved to primetime, which left Poppy Harlow as the only one of the three that remained on CNN This Morning. She’ll now be joined by Phil Mattingly, who has been serving as the network’s chief White House correspondent.
