CNN darling Kaitlan Collins will have to work overtime to help the struggling network hang on to viewers.
The network confirmed today during a morning call that in addition to hosting her own show, The Source, Collins will also resume her old role as Chief White House Correspondent.
It means splitting her time between New York City and Washington, DC, and returning to her old stomping grounds in the White House briefing room.
Collins, who earns $3 million a year, is one of CNN’s few success stories in recent years.
She rose to prominence during the first Trump administration with daring interrogations in the White House briefing room.
She and Trump clashed regularly. She was eventually banned from events for her brutal criticism of him over his friendship with Putin.
Collins was part of the doomed facelift implemented by former boss Chris Licht. She co-hosted a morning show with Don Lemon and Poppy Harlow, which resulted in Lemon’s dismissal from the network.
With CNN desperately trying to distance itself from the ongoing Trump bashing that has turned off viewers, network executives are hoping Collins and her contacts can save the day.
CNN star Kaitlan Collins will resume her old role as chief White House correspondent, in addition to anchoring her own show
She, like several other members of the media, has been camped there for days as Trump continues to hold court from his Mar-a-Lago complex.
The Semafor piece further stated that there has been some “internal buzz” surrounding the future shuffle within the network’s DC bureau, which has already been blessed with a new boss in the form of DC bureau chief David Chalian.
Chalian was previously Yahoo! The News bureau boss in Washington, but was fired after being caught on a hot mic saying that then-candidate Mitt Romney was “not concerned at all” and was “happy to have a party where black people were drowning” during the Hurricane Isaac.
He then headed CNN’s political coverage from 2014 until last week, when he was asked to oversee the network’s DC bureau and all of CNN’s political reporting in Washington.
This is in addition to his role overseeing CNN’s daily political reporting across all platforms, where he is also responsible for editorial content for special political programming.
He will also remain CNN’s political director in his new role, as “several” insiders have denied to Semafor that the network has not yet made any other official decisions.
If the Collins move goes through, she and her eponymous primetime show — which currently airs from Florida — would have to move from New York to Washington.
Any programming changes or staffing outside of the agreement were not detailed.
Collins already hosts her own show, The Source, weekdays at 9 p.m
The most notable — and likely the reason for former CEO Chris Licht’s ouster — was a widely seen confrontation between the two at a town hall last year, where Trump called Collins “an annoying woman.” During the event, CNN was criticized for alleged bias and unprofessional questioning
Collins, meanwhile, is in the midst of a meteoric rise that has seen her meet not one but two governments, all while emerging as a newly recognizable face.
Nowadays she commands a salary of $3 million, and co-hosted The Source with Kaitlan Collins in primetime for just over a year.
The show airs weekdays between Anderson Cooper 360° and CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip, the latter of which has occasionally outperformed in the ratings despite being in a later timeslot.
In appointing her to the new position, CNN is seeking to emulate the success of Trump’s first term, when coverage of the president drew record numbers every night.
Doing that with a journalist who has a checkered history with the conservatives is like ‘walking'[ing] a tightrope,” the Semafor report admitted when it comes to reporting on Trump – pointing to CNN’s old approach of manipulating the then-president in particular.
CNN CEO Mark Thompson has made it clear that the station’s new mission is not to default toward anti-Trump reporting, unlike former CNN President Jeff Zucker.
Replacement Chris Licht attempted the same thing, but was fired in June 2023 after less than a year following a series of layoffs and a failed town hall that happened to be led by Collins.
The latter is seen as one of the main reasons for Licht’s impeachment, as it was widely panned due to Collins’ unfortunate attempts to fact-check the president.
The news also comes as veteran anchors Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer were reportedly denied raises recently – after already pulling in salaries of $3 million and $7 million respectively
Veteran news anchor Chris Wallace has also left CNN after several years – and after earning a salary of $7 million. Insiders previously said they were considering a pay cut for the 77-year-old
Collins, despite being a relative newcomer, isn’t far behind, bringing in $3 million. She is currently in West Palm Beach covering the president-elect
As a result, the live event teetered on the edge of chaos, and days after it wrapped, a 15,000-word profile emerged in The Atlantic of journalist Tim Alberta, which seriously questioned Licht’s ability to lead the organization.
Within a week, Licht was fired after finding success helming “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and producing MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Meanwhile, the widely criticized City Hall did manage to get a reporter who had tried to elevate Licht to stardom in Collins to one thing.
Within months, her then-new primetime show would air as scheduled, and continues to do so with mixed ratings.
And while a newly inducted Thompson is reportedly working hard to correct the climate left behind by his predecessors, ratings are down more than 20 percent in the past year.
A particularly pronounced decline was seen on the Thursday after the election, when the channel’s viewership dropped from 6 million daily viewers on Tuesday to just 596,000.
Fox News, meanwhile, remained the top choice for viewers on the big night and long after, after averaging 10.3 million viewers on Tuesday and 2.6 million total viewers Thursday.
The latter was more than ten times what MSNBC achieved, and even more compared to CNN.
Doing that with a journalist who has a checkered history with the conservatives is like ‘walking'[ing] a tightrope,” the Semafor report admitted when it comes to reporting on Trump – pointing to CNN’s old approach of panning the then-president in particular
Days earlier, The Ankler reported that officials had considered a pay cut for Wallace, who made $7 million a year.
Puck was reportedly told by insiders that Wallace was told by CNN brass that his two struggling shows would be canceled and that his salary would bump if he signed on for another year.
Meanwhile, famous faces like Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett take home annual salaries of $20 million and $6 million, respectively.
Collins, despite being a relative newcomer, isn’t far behind.