CNN CANCELS SPITZER’S IN THE ARENA

Eliot Spitzer has left the arena. Or In the Arena, the name of his retitled show. CNN, which hoped to mount an effective opposition to Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly at 8:00 p.m. by initially pairing Spitzer with conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, then handing the entire hour to him, announced today that it is dumping the […]

WILL PARKER SPITZER LOSE PARKER?

Conservative commentator Kathleen Parker is about to be dumped from CNN’s low-rated Parker Spitzer, according to the New York Post, which cited an unnamed insider. The source told the newspaper that Parker was being removed from the show “due to a lack of chemistry” with Spitzer and “dismal ratings.” The Post also took note of […]

CRITICS SLAM CNN’S LATEST PRIMETIME ENTRY

The success of CNN’s big gamble in mounting a new politically-oriented talk show in primetime featuring the conservative columnist Kathleen Parker and the liberal former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer won’t be known until the ratings start coming in — but the verdict of TV columnists has been uniformly disapproving. New York Times TV critic […]

CNN U.S. HEAD JON KLEIN FIRED

After failing to halt an unrelenting exodus of viewers and taking a pummeling from cable news rivals, CNN U.S. President Jon Klein was fired today (Friday). The news was first reported by the TV news website FTV.com, which published a memo to staff from Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide, in which Klein’s departure was […]

CNN’S GOT PIERS MORGAN? HOLD ON

CNN President Jon Klein is attempting to put a cap on the gushing leaks within the cable news network about its programming plans, but they continue to spread. Following numerous reports originating in the British press that Piers Morgan, the America’s Got Talent judge and former editor of the London Daily Mirror and the weekly […]

BLACK JOURNALISTS DECRY ALL-WHITE PRIMETIME ON CNN, MSNBC

The National Association of Black Journalists on Friday lashed out at CNN for its decision to replace Campbell Brown in the 8:00 p.m. time slot with two white co-hosts, Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer. “The company missed another opportunity to place a person of color in prime time,” NABJ said in a statement. “Are you […]

CNN TO REPLACE NEWS WITH DEBATE AT 8:00

Apparently concluding that it can no longer draw an audience during primetime with “straight” news, CNN plans to replace its 8:00 p.m. news hour with a Crossfire-type nightly debate between liberal former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer and conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary this year. In an interview with […]