Kaitlan Collins put on a very ho-hum performance for Trump’s town hall. Her questions were predictable and boring. Her real-time “fact checks” were cringe. Her personality was like wet paint. Nothing about it screamed, “cable news’ next starlet.”
Yet CNN executives were apparently sufficiently impressed that they have gifted her a 9 p.m. primetime slot on the network.
Via CNN:
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins will anchor a new show at 9 pm starting in June, CNN CEO Chris Licht announced Wednesday.
In the new evening show, Collins will “showcase why she’s one of the top reporters and interviewers in the game,” Licht said in an internal memo to employees. “She is a smart and gifted journalist who we’ve all seen hold lawmakers and newsmakers accountable. She pushes politicians off their talking points, gets real answers — and as everyone who’s worked with her knows — breaks a lot of news.”
Her appointment fills a vacant slot that had been left open since the departure of former anchor Chris Cuomo, who was terminated by the network in December 2021. Since then, the 9 pm slot was hosted by a cast of CNN anchors, special interviews and town halls.
It’s unclear what the play is here. There is no way this woman is going to draw in a new audience. She’s certainly not going to attract any Trump voters. The move will likely turn off any #Resistance voters, the bread and butter of CNN’s dwindling viewership, who are still fuming about the network “platforming” the leading presidential candidate in the race.
Trying to save CNN is likely a losing venture no matter what an executive does. The dinosaur legacy media’s reign of terror is rapidly drawing to a close. At best, it will enjoy a decade more of hegemony before being rendered to history’s trash pile like rotary phones and steam engines.
But Chris Licht appears hellbent on expediting its demise.
There’s tons of young talent out there that could spice up CNN’s lineup. Why they keep returning to the well of boring, milquetoast Erin Burnett robots straight from the factory floor and expecting any kind of favorable ratings bump is beyond me.
According to Reuters, CNN’s new management is reportedly attempting to court Trump viewers as Fox News hemorrhages viewers in the post-Carlson era.
This is very sad. No self-respecting MAGA domestic terrorist is going to watch the network that demonized them for years and years just because they did one town hall with Trump and put a nominal RINO Republican on TV in primetime.
The incompetence of these executives, assuming they are actually trying to build an audience, is astounding.
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