CNN insiders fear anchor ‘bloodbath’ as bosses crack down on stars’ megabucks pay
With CNN’s ratings lagging far behind rivals Fox and MSNBC, several network stars are being denied raises or pay cuts with the message “take it or leave it.”
Former BBC News director Mark Thompson was hired to revive the network in 2023 and his strategy appears to include cutting costs after Chris Licht was sacked.
It’s part of what is reportedly going to be a winter of layoffs that many at the network fear will be a “bloodbath.”
For starters, celebrity chefs Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer β who earned $7 million and $3 million respectively β signed new deals for the same price, with one agent joking that ‘flat is the new up’.
Fox News exile Chris Wallace β signed to the network’s flop streaming service and now transitioning to his own weekend show β has been offered a new deal at a “significant” pay cut from the $8.5 million a year he was making. The ankle boot reported.
With CNN’s ratings lagging far behind rivals Fox and MSNBC, several network stars are being offered no raises or pay cuts with a take-it-or-leave-it message under new CEO Mark Thompson.
Fox News exile Chris Wallace β signed to the network’s flop streaming service and now transitioned to his own weekend show β has been offered a new deal at a ‘significant’ pay cut from the $8.5 million a year he was making
‘They have been extremely tough in the contract negotiations. There’s a lot of ‘take it or leave it,'” one officer said.
Many are wondering what will be next for $18 million host Anderson Cooper, as well as Erin Burnett ($5 million) and Dana Bash, whose deals take place over the next two years.
Where the network could reportedly try to make real cuts is with the network’s correspondents, who are in the mid to high six figures and rarely appear on the air and when they do, they are not to Thompson’s taste .
βMark has made it known that he doesn’t like the conventional style of TV packages we do,β an unnamed journalist told The Ankler.
‘He wants people who are tense. He doesn’t want people who look like your traditional presenter, and it turns out they are people [edgy] people are cheaper.’
Thompson could make major cuts to the network’s DC bureau and ditch political reporting for more entertainment and travel.
‘If you don’t get an offer for months, you are in a precarious situation. That fear has seeped into everything,β said a CNN contributor.
It will all be an effort to save a network that averaged just 853,000 viewers in September, down 21% from the month before and well below Fox News (2.5 million) and MSNBC (1.4 million).
Star host Jake Tapper did not receive an increase to his $7 million per year salary in his new contract
Wolf Blitzer also extended his contract with the network without a bump in his $3 million per year check
DailyMail.com has contacted CNN for comment.
Thompson was hired to lead the network’s strategy, operations and business units and serve as editor-in-chief, ultimately responsible for all CNN content and overseeing its 4,000 employees worldwide.
In Thompson, WBD boss David Zaslav turns to an executive with experience at the highest levels of the news business, as opposed to Licht – a former TV producer who had worked on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
The experienced media executive began his career at the British Broadcasting Corporation, which he joined in 1979 as a production intern, eventually becoming editor of Nine O’Clock News and Panorama and later director of television.
He left the BBC in 2002 to become CEO of Channel 4, but returned when he was appointed director general in May 2004, a position he held until 2012.
At the BBC, Thompson led an extensive range of newsrooms across TV, radio and digital, and led the development of the BBC iPlayer, the world’s first streaming service from a major broadcaster.
His appointment to CNN followed a tumultuous 18 months of palace intrigue at the news network, starting with the ouster of former boss Jeff Zucker last year.
Zucker resigned from CNN in February 2022 after it emerged he had had a secret romance with his top lieutenant, Allison Gollust, CNN’s executive vice president and one of the network’s top leaders.
WBD, which completed its merger in April 2022 to become CNN’s new parent company, appointed Licht as the new network boss, but his tenure was marked by controversy.
Unlike Zucker, who enjoyed loyal support in the CNN newsroom, Licht’s tenure was marked by staff discontent that sometimes bordered on open rebellion.