‘CNN This Morning’ Loses Key Producer to Late Night Program

CNN This Morning’s executive producer Eric Jall is leaving the show and moving to the 11 p.m. hour of CNN Tonight. The latter of which is hosted by Laura Coates. His exit comes just under the three-month mark of the morning show’s revamped premiere. The show debuted on Nov. 1, 2022, and is hosted by Don Lemon, Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow. Lemon joined the show after his Don Lemon Tonight was canceled after three seasons. As for a replacement for Hall, no one has been named, Deadline reports. 

The network has undergone a series of changes in programming and staff, both on and off camera, since chairman and CEO Chris Licht — a former showrunner for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — was named in the position in May 2022. 

CNN This Morning‘s viewership numbers have fared well but reportedly not in the way the network has wanted, with 400,000 viewers weekly compared to the 412,000 viewers that its predecessor, New Day, averaged the year before. Despite such, CNN This Morning has seen growth in viewership since its debut last Fall.

Other changes spearheaded by Licht include host changes throughout the morning blocks. However, CNN’s 9 p.m. ET slot remains empty as the network tries to figure out what to do next since Chris Cuomo’s exit in 2021. Cuomo was fired in Dec. 2021. The announcement came after an investigation was launched to review information about how he aided his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, when the then-governor was accused of sexual harassment. Chris reportedly sent his brother a heads-up via text about what was to come.

In a statement regarding his firing, Chris said: “This is not how I want my time at CNN to end but I have already told you why and how I helped my brother. So let me now say as disappointing as this is, I could not be more proud of the team at Cuomo Prime Time and the work we did as CNN’s #1 show in the most competitive time slot. I owe them all and will miss that group of special people who did really important work.”