Embattled CNN CEO Chris Licht stepping down at network after controversial year

Television producer Chris Licht attends The Hollywood Reporter's annual Most Powerful People in Media cocktail reception on April 11, 2019, in New York. Licht, who served as Stephen Colbert's top producer at CBS, was appointed as the new head of CNN in 2022.

CNN is seeking a new captain. Again.

Chris Licht, the embattled CEO of the cable news network, is out at the company, according to a press release Wednesday.

Licht will be replaced in the interim by Amy Entelis, a longtime CNN executive, Virginia Moseley, EVP of editorial, and Eric Sherling, EVP of U.S. programming, and David Leavy, chief operating officer, on the commercial side.

The news, first reported by trade publication Puck, comes less than a week after becoming the subject of a devastating profile in the Atlantic, which portrayed Licht as an ineffectual leader presiding over a “meltdown” at the news organization, including a widely-criticized town hall featuring former president Donald Trump.

Licht only took over the reigns of CNN in 2022 after the network’s parent company WarnerMedia merged with Discovery, creating Warner Bros. Discovery. The new company made swift changes at the network, immediately shuttering CNN+, a streaming service that had barely launched. Licht, appointed by WBD CEO David Zaslav, came with a mandate to make CNN more middle-of-the-road in its coverage, which many interpreted as more right-wing. In the Atlantic profile, Licht goes back and forth about the mission of CNN and the definition of “absolute truth.”

In a staff meeting Wednesday, Zaslav told CNN employees, “I met with Chris and he will be leaving CNN. … For a number of reason, things didn’t work out, and that’s unfortunate. It’s really unfortunate. And ultimately, that’s on me, and I take full responsibility for that. But now we begin a new page. This is an extraordinary organization.”