This time last year, Jeff Zucker was running CNN, Chris Cuomo was its biggest star and Brian Stelter was the in-house media pundit tasked with nitpicking conservatives at every turn.
None of them are employed by the network as of next week. Since that time, CNN’s much-hyped streaming service launched and was quickly shut down, too.
Licht has regularly signaled major changes would take place since he took over the job last spring. He put an emphasis on "news" in his initial email introduction to staffers, discussed looming changes at an internal town hall event, told advertisers he would "reimagine" CNN’s morning show and issued new guidelines urging producers to tone down the "breaking news" banners to not present stories in an alarmist fashion.
His biggest change to date came this week when Licht canceled CNN’s poorly rated "Reliable Sources" media program and ditched Stelter, its polarizing host who was well-liked inside CNN’s Hudson Yards headquarters but seen as the poster boy for media bias and industry insularity by conservatives.
While Licht has warned staffers that more changes are coming, the makeover has begun. Here are some of the key moments from CNN’s rocky and bizarre renovation:
LIBERTY MEDIA CHAIRMAN CHIDES CNN TO 'ACTUALLY HAVE JOURNALISTS' FOLLOWING AT&T-DISCOVERY MERGER
Infamous John Malone comments
In November, WarnerMedia had not yet merged with Discovery Communications Inc., a long-planned pact that would put CNN under control of a newly formed company, Warner Bros. Discovery. Liberty Media chairman John Malone, who sat on the Discovery Communications Inc. board of directors at the time and is now an influential Warner Bros. Discovery board member, appeared on CNBC and made comments that sent shockwaves through CNN.
Malone, who mentored Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, declared CNN should revert to nonpartisan journalism once the liberal network was under the Discovery umbrella.
"I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing," Malone said in the interview.
Many industry insiders took this as a sign that CNN’s new management would shed the liberal pundits that rose to fame under Zucker, a prediction that is starting to come to fruition roughly 10 months later.
Notably, Stelter had previously reported that many current CNN employees were hurt by Malone’s rhetoric.
"That phrasing – especially the words ‘actually have journalists,’ which implied CNN currently doesn't – was highly offensive to many staffers. I reported on Sunday's ‘Reliable’ that it was disturbing to Zucker, too," Stelter wrote. "Malone's comments stoked fears that Discovery might stifle CNN journalists and steer away from calling out indecency and injustice."
CNN fires Chris Cuomo
One of the biggest moves came under the old regime in December, when Zucker was forced to fire star anchor Chris Cuomo after a series of scandals and embarrassing moments helped tarnish the network’s reputation. His swift termination came after an evaluation of his conduct following revelations from the New York attorney general's investigation into his brother, ousted Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Transcripts from the "Cuomo Prime Time" host’s interview with state investigators revealed the anchor was deeply involved in aiding the governor's team as his brother was hit with mounting sexual misconduct allegations. However, Cuomo wasn't officially fired until CNN learned of a sexual assault allegation made against him by a former colleague during his tenure at ABC News, something he has repeatedly denied.
Separately, Chris Cuomo was accused of flouting journalistic ethics when he welcomed his brother onto "Cuomo Prime Time" for a series of chummy interviews in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, as the New York governor was being heralded by the media for his handling of the virus.
Andrew Cuomo's lighthearted appearances coincided with the nursing home scandal where his administration forced assisted living facilities to accept COVID-positive patients in order to prevent overwhelming hospitals, an order critics say led to the death of thousands of elderly New Yorkers, as well as a cover-up of damning COVID data exposing the damage that was done.
It was also revealed that Chris Cuomo was a beneficiary of the Cuomo administration as he received prioritized COVID testing in the early months of the pandemic as ordinary New Yorkers struggled. A top New York physician was even sent to his house in the Hamptons to conduct such testing for visits that often lasted hours.
JEFF ZUCKER RESIGNATION MARKS LATEST SCANDAL TO PLAGUE CNN
Zucker forced to resign ahead of merger
CNN parted ways with Zucker ahead of the merger with Discovery, marking the end of a polarizing era that forever changed the way many Americans feel about the network. Before Zucker arrived in 2013, CNN was known for founder Ted Turner’s just-the-facts approach to news. Under Zucker, the network famously drifted to the left as he loaded the lineup with liberal opinion hosts, and President Trump and CNN developed a mutually antagonistic relationship.
Zucker was forced out in February, initially claiming it was because of an undisclosed, consensual sexual relationship with a colleague, Allison Gollust. However, then-parent company WarnerMedia eventually admitted Zucker violated company policies related directly to news network’s standards and practices. His violations were found during a third-party probe into CNN’s handling of the "issues" associated with Chris Cuomo and his big brother.
Many of CNN’s biggest stars openly mourned the loss. An emotional Alisyn Camerota called it an "incredible loss," saying "Jeff is a remarkable person and incredible leader" with an "uncanny" ability to make everyone feel valuable, while Don Lemon told viewers CNN was "heartbroken because we lost our leader."
Gollust resigned less than a month after Zucker was pushed out. The two had long been rumored to have a romantic relationship over decades, but they claimed it only began during the coronavirus pandemic.
Discovery takes over
Discovery's merger with WarnerMedia became official on April 11 and Zaslav became CEO of the newly formed company, Warner Bros. Discovery.
WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who oversaw CNN during the final stages of the Zucker era, left the company and Licht officially became the CEO of CNN Global.
CNN+ STREAMING SERVICE TO SHUT DOWN AFTER JUST ONE MONTH
CNN+ streaming service shut down
It took less than two weeks for the new regime to start pulling the plug on Zucker-era concepts, with CNN+ being the first victim. Warner Bros. Discovery announced on April 21 that it would completely shut down CNN+ less than a month after it launched.
CNN even threw a swanky launch party for CNN+ on March 28, the eve of its highly publicized premiere. The failed service was the brainchild of Zucker and Kilar, who were no longer with the company by the time it was eliminated.
The previous management team reportedly spent $100 million on development costs and had roughly 500 employees working on the service, but leaked subscription data that revealed startlingly low numbers sullied its reputation. One CNN insider told Fox News Digital at the time they were confused by the service's launch in the first place, given the pending corporate merger. Other critics of CNN wondered why people would pay for more content from a network already struggling in the ratings.
JEFFREY TOOBIN ALMOST CERTAINLY PUSHED OUT FROM CNN, INSIDERS SAY
Jeffrey Toobin exits network
The summer was relatively quiet for CNN, as Licht spent his time evaluating executives and talent to determine who deserved to stick around. But another scandal-plagued, Zucker-era pundit split this month when legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said he was moving on.
Toobin announced last week that he "decided" to leave CNN only 14 months after CNN welcomed him back following his infamous Zoom incident. The legal pundit was caught masturbating during a 2020 Zoom meeting with his New Yorker colleagues and subsequently fired by the magazine. CNN did not dismiss him and granted him a lengthy leave of absence when the network was still controlled by Zucker.
Multiple insiders have told Fox News Digital that Toobin, an unabashed progressive, was likely forced out by new management.
BRIAN STELTER OUT AT CNN AS NETWORK CANCELS MEDIA SHOW 'RELIABLE SOURCES'
Stelter terminated, ‘Reliable Sources’ canceled
Licht’s vision of a less-partisan CNN started to become clear when it was announced that Stelter’s "Reliable Sources" would be canceled after Sunday’s final episode and its polarizing host would leave the network.
Stelter drifted from respected media reporter to a partisan pundit who emerged as one of the mainstream media’s most outspoken critics of former President Donald Trump. Weeks before his exit, Stelter was singled out in an Axios report about an attempt to restore the organization’s nonpartisan approach as the "face of the network's liberal shift" in the eyes of conservatives.
In what many assumed was an attempt to appease new management, Stelter recently had an apparent epiphany about the severity of the Hunter Biden scandal, which turned out not to be a dismissable "right-wing media story" like the liberal pundit insisted in 2020. However, Stelter failed to win over Licht, who never liked Stelter's program according to a media insider familiar with the situation.
"The Stelter thing wasn’t really a shock. I think Brian knew it was coming for a while," a CNN insider told Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn and David Rutz contributed to this report.
