CNN To Scale Back Original Series And Films As It Looks To Move Longform In House

CNN is scaling back on original series and films and is looking to move to in-house production, citing costs as the network looks to cuts in division budgets.

The CNN Original Series and CNN Films units, led by Amy Entelis, have been behind such popular shows as Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy and the recent The Last Movie Stars. CNN recently debuted Navalny, the documentary about Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, and aired a documentary series on the Murdochs.

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CNN Worldwide Chairman and CEO Chris Licht wrote in a memo on Friday that “our long-term plan will no longer rely on commissioned projects with outside partners. This was a very difficult decision to make, and it was based, in large part, on the ever-increasing cost of commissioning third-party premium content. However, I want to be clear that longform content remains an important pillar of our programming.”

It was not immediately clear how many positions would be affected.

Earlier in the week, Licht warned employees of coming cost cuts to staff and budgets.

Licht also wrote that he had asked Entelis “to explore how we can approach longform content in house. My goal is to find a model that will enable us to bring our audiences this type of programming with greater flexibility.” Entelis, who is executive vice president for talent and content development for CNN Worldwide, is said to be exploring the creation of an in-house content studio. Entelis was among the executives tapped to serve as interim CNN leader after the abrupt resignation of Jeff Zucker in February.

CNN will continue with plans to air original series and films next year that already were in development and close to completion. They include projects on Dionne Warwick and Little Richard, another on the history of Black television, and the previously announced series Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico.

The original series unit also has been responsible for Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown and United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell.

Licht’s memo is below:

To my CNN colleagues,

I am writing to share that we are making changes to how we approach premium longform content.

Our long-term plan will no longer rely on commissioned projects with outside partners. This was a very difficult decision to make, and it was based, in large part, on the ever-increasing cost of commissioning third-party premium content. However, I want to be clear that longform content remains an important pillar of our programming.

Amy Entelis and her team built the CNN Original Series and CNN Films brands from scratch and grew them into storytelling powerhouses, with reams of critical accolades from across the industry, and many shelves of Primetime Emmy® Awards to prove it. They will have produced ten years of high-end assets for CNN—thousands of hours of films and series that are finding new and enthusiastic audiences on discovery+ and HBO Max.

That library includes more than 60 feature-length documentary films, which began with a strategic acquisition of Blackfish at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, to the CNN Films we see today from Apollo 11, RBG, Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street, Three Identical Strangers, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, and The Last Movie Stars. We are especially proud of Navalny and its international impact.

Under the CNN Original Series banner, Amy and her team created 45 multipart series, including the groundbreaking Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, the award-winning United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, the beloved Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, the acclaimed This is Life with Lisa Ling, and the sixty-episode survey of modern American history in the “Decades Series”: The Sixties, The Seventies, The Eighties, The Nineties, and The 2000s.

This team has also formed strong relationships across the film and television industry, and we are very grateful to all our partners over the years who have been critical to our success.

In 2023, we will air a slate of six CNN Original Series and six CNN Films. As we look forward, I have asked Amy to explore how we can approach longform content in house. My goal is to find a model that will enable us to bring our audiences this type of programming with greater flexibility.

I want to thank Amy for her continued partnership and for the extraordinary work that she and her team have contributed to CNN.

Chris

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