Reports have been circulating around the web about a shake-up over at CNN that could leave Soledad O’Brien without a job or the network without one of its star players.
According to Page Six, CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker is looking to move news anchor Erin Burnett into O’Brien’s current morning slot, without replacing O’Brien’s gig with a promised prime-time spot.
“The deal to move Erin to the morning alongside Chris Cuomo is basically done. Soledad had been told she’d get a prime-time slot, but that hasn’t yet happened, and now she is telling friends she is likely to leave,” a source revealed. “Soledad is talented at producing in-depth, serious pieces of journalism, and is a tough interviewer. That doesn’t seem to fit the direction the network is going.”
Another source added that O’Brien would only stay for the right show and that a “flurry of announcements were expected soon.
O’Brien made the move to CNN in 2003 after working with NBC and has anchored American Morning and Starting Point, as well as several network specials.
Zucker, the former chief executive of NBC, started his assignment in January after former president Jim Walton stepped down at the end of the year.
O’Brien and CNN have yet to comment on the matter.
