CNN Unveils Lineup Overhaul: Abby Phillip And Laura Coates Get Nighttime Shows, Phil Mattingly and Kasie Hunt To Host In Mornings

CNN unveiled an overhaul of its lineup, with Abby Phillip getting the 10 p.m. ET primetime slot, while Phil Mattingly will co-anchor CNN This Morning along with Poppy Harlow, and Kasie Hunt will helm Early Start.

Other changes: Laura Coates will anchor a new 11 p.m. ET show out of Washington, while Pamela Brown will anchor a 3 p.m. ET weekday show, The Bulletin with Pamela Brown.

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On the weekends, Victor Blackwell, Chris Wallace and Christiane Amanpour will host new Saturday morning shows, while Manu Raju will take over the anchor chores on Inside Politics on Sunday morning.

Wallace, who has been hosting the interview show Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? for HBO Max and CNN, will feature a “provocative panel of some of the country’s best reporters and influential commentators” to analyze the latest news and the 2024 presidential race. Amanpour’s show will focus on international developments.

CNN also will continue with plans for King Charles, a weekly limited series hosted by Gayle King and Charles Barkley that will debut later in the fall on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. The show had been one of the higher-profile orders during the Licht era.

Alisyn Camerota, who has been anchoring the 10 p.m. CNN Tonight, with Coates also filling in, will focus on reporting for the longform unit, including the Sunday evening series The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.

The changes are the most significant since an interim leadership team took control of the network following the abrupt departure of Chris Licht in June. Amy Entelis, David Leavy, Virginia Moseley and Eric Sherling are leading the network, which has seen a ratings slide since the 2020 presidential election. In total day in July, CNN’s ratings were down 21%, averaging 426,000, from the same month in 2022.

The changes also mean that the network will have a permanent primetime schedule for the first time since 2021, when Chris Cuomo, who anchored at 9 p.m. ET, was fired. Kaitlan Collins became the permanent host in that slot in June. The network’s viewership in primetime was off by 27% in July, averaging 534,000 viewers.

The leadership team said in a statement: “One of CNN’s key differentiators is our deep roster of experienced journalists, reporters and storytellers. Many joined CNN early in their careers and have grown with the network throughout the years. They are extraordinarily talented and share the same CNN sensibility: versatility, determination and an inquisitive and empathetic approach to reporting the news. By expanding the range and depth of our programming lineup across multiple dayparts, we are strengthening our reporting excellence throughout the schedule, elevating our ability to tell great stories across platforms, and doubling down on CNN’s position as the most trusted name in news.”

A summary of the new shows and hosts below:

CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip, 10 p.m. ET weeknights. Phillip has been a rising star at the network, as senior political correspondent and host of Inside Politics Sunday. She joined CNN in 2017. Her new show will be based out of New York.

Laura Coates Live, 11 p.m. ET weeknights. The network’s chief legal analyst already has been a frequent presence as fill in anchor in primetime, and her show will be based out of Washington, D.C. She also hosts a daily show for SiriusXM.

King Charles, 9 p.m. ET Wednesdays. The King-Barkley combination was to be part of Licht’s plans to fill the nighttime schedule with some non-conventional personalities. But it proved difficult to land big names given budget and scheduling constraints. King Charles was billed as a conversational show that will draw on the chemistry between the two hosts, while each retain their other media gigs. King is the co-anchor of CBS Mornings, while Barkley hosts Inside the NBA as part of an overall deal with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Early Start, 5 a.m. ET weekdays. Kasie Hunt will take the helm of CNN’s early morning news program, after the departure of Christine Romans last month. Hunt, who previously anchored MSNBC’s 5 a.m. ET Way Too Early, had left NBCUniversal in 2021 for CNN, where she was a central part of plans for CNN+, with a daily streaming series, but it proved short-lived after the subscription service was shut down after four weeks. This will be her first show on CNN since then.

CNN This Morning, 6 a.m.-9 a.m. weekdays. Mattingly has been CNN’s chief White House correspondent, having been promoted to that position last year when Kaitlan Collins departed to be part of the team that launched the overhauled morning show in November. He’s already been filling in as morning anchor along with Harlow, so his new position is not a huge surprise. Meanwhile, on the White House beat, CNN recently hired Kayla Tausche from CNBC to serve as senior White House correspondent, and no plans have been announced for Mattingly’s former title. He joined the network in 2015.

The Bulletin with Pamela Brown, 3 p.m. ET weekdays. Brown, who has been chief investigative correspondent, also has filled in as anchor throughout the week. Her show, based in Washington, will take the place of the final hour of CNN News Central. The latter was another Licht programming move, as he centered the network’s dayside coverage around a trio of anchors with an emphasis on breaking news and large-sized screens. CNN News Central remains in the mornings and afternoon.

First of All with Victor Blackwell, 8 a.m. ET Saturdays. Blackwell’s show, which will be based in Atlanta, will focus on stories affecting communities of color. He also has been hosting CNN This Morning Weekends with Amara Walker. He joined CNN in 2012.

The Chris Wallace Show, 10 a.m. ET Saturdays. Wallace’s interview series, Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, has featured a mix of interviews with celebrities from entertainment, sports and politics. His new panel show marks a return to focus on breaking news and the political arena. He joined CNN in late 2021, as one of the highest profile hires for CNN+. After the demise of the subscription streaming service, he continued with his interview series on HBO Max, with a replay on CNN on Friday evenings. Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? will now be exclusively on Max, the rebranded streaming service, with no CNN replay.

Christiane Amanpour, 11 a.m. ET Saturdays. The network’s chief international anchor will now have a weekend show, centered on international affairs. She also has been anchor of CNN International’s Amanpour, which airs on PBS in the United States. Amanpour first joined CNN in 1983.

Inside Politics with Manu Raju, 11 a.m. Sundays. Raju will continue to serve as chief congressional correspondent as he takes over hosting duties on the Sunday politics show. He joined CNN in 2015.

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