CNN to name Chris Licht as successor to ex-president Jeff Zucker – reports

News giant CNN is poised to appoint Chris Licht, executive VP of special programming at ViacomCBS, as the successor to recently departed president Jeff Zucker, according to reports.

Chris Licht (photo: Arforv via CC)

Licht, who has been showrunner and executive producer of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since 2016, is expected to take the helm in the spring once the Discovery-WarnerMedia merger has closed.

CNN, parent company WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS have not commented on the appointment, although reports suggest it will be made official later this week. The news was first reported by US media outlet Puck News.

Licht is a veteran producer known for creating the talkshow Morning Joe, relaunching CBS This Morning and helping to refresh The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. His new role will not include sport, which was part of Zucker’s dual role as both chairman of WarnerMedia’s news and sports division and president of CNN Worldwide.

According to reports, Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav, who will have ultimate oversight of CNN from his position as head of the merged Warner Bros Discovery entity, made the decision to select Licht as Zucker’s successor.

Reports of Licht’s appointment come less than four weeks after the shock news broke that former CNN Worldwide president Zucker had resigned after failing to disclose a romantic relationship with a fellow CNN executive, Allison Gollust.

The consensual relationship had come to light as part of an investigation into CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who was dismissed in December after it emerged he had assisted his brother, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, as the latter navigated a flurry of sexual assault allegations last year. During the course of that investigation, Zucker acknowledged that the relationship between himself and Gollust, who also left CNN earlier this month, had evolved in recent years.

In the interim, CNN appointed Michael Bass, executive VP of programming at CNN US, Amy Entelis, executive VP of CNN Worldwide, and Ken Jautz, executive VP at CNN US, as co-heads.

The leadership change comes during a pivotal year for CNN as it prepares to launch its direct-to-consumer service, CNN+.

Last week during Discovery’s fourth-quarter investor call, Zaslav said he plans to begin strategising over the future of CNN shortly, but would not comment fully as the entity is still owned by WarnerMedia parent AT&T. “We will, in the near term, sit down and have a real business plan discussion with the people at CNN and CNN+. We haven’t had that yet,” said Zaslav.