Amid budget cuts and layoffs, CNN has opted to cease all live programming on its HLN network. As a result, this marks the end of Morning Express with Robin Meade, and the anchor will be leaving the network after 20 years on the air. A simulcast of CNN This Morning will take the Morning Express time slot, TV Insider reports. HLN’s true-crime programming will remain. However, it’ll be produced in partnership with Investigation Discovery.
Meade isn’t the only person to go. Other correspondents and journalists were also laid off from the network on Thursday, Dec. 1. CNN correspondents Alison Kosik, Martin Savidge, Alex Field, Mary Ann Fox, and Chris Cillizza are reportedly among those fired. Daytime anchor Ana Cabrera will reportedly leave the network for a job with NBC News, and will likely end up at MSNBC. Cabrera has anchored CNN Newsroom’s 1 p.m. hour since Spring 2021. She was previously a CNN weekend anchor for four years after joining the network as a Denver correspondent in 2013.
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HLN was originally titled CNN Headline News. Meade has been reporting from the Atlanta headquarters since 2001, making her the longest-running anchor of a national morning TV news show. Morning Express comprised the majority of the network’s daytime programming for years. Its new replacement, CNN This Morning, is the network’s refreshed morning show hosted by Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins. It launched in Sept. 2022 after Lemon transitioned from his late-night show, Don Lemon Tonight.
Chris Licht stepped in as CEO of CNN earlier this year and spearheaded the changes to reduce costs. Morning Express joins Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter as one of the network’s longest-running programs to be canceled in recent weeks. Reliable Sources had been running for 30 years, with Stelter ushered in as host in 2013.
