CNN Management Wanted Jeff Zucker Gone For Other Reasons, ‘Including Bad Ratings’

The bombshell exit of CNN president Jeff Zucker this week — a month or so ahead of the launch of CNN+, and in the wake of the still-smoldering Chris Cuomo investigation — has, no surprise, sent shockwaves through the network’s newsroom as well as the company rank-and-file. Ostensibly the consequence of failing to disclose a consensual relationship with a colleague (per Zucker’s own words, though that’s been met with no small degree of skepticism because of the open secret nature of the relationship) Zucker’s sudden resignation also casts a shadow over what’s said to be the biggest operational shift since the network’s founding: The debut of a new paid streaming service. One that Jason Kilar, the CEO of CNN parent company WarnerMedia, reportedly said would account for most of the network’s business in the years to come.

Over at Fox, meanwhile, Tucker Carlson said on Wednesday night’s edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight that the employee relationship was likely just the “pretext” for Zucker’s departure.  

“New management wanted him out at CNN for other reasons,” Carlson told his audience. “Including bad ratings. And maybe others that we’ll find out about later.”

That part about ratings refers to recent trends at the cable news rival that Fox loves to hate, which saw a nearly 80% drop in year-over-year primetime ratings in January. Among the key demographic group valued by advertisers (25-54)? CNN’s drop was actually a little larger there, at 81%.

“So, the relationship was just a pretext for what you saw,” Carlson continued. “But, as usual with CNN, you’ve got to wade through a lot of lies to get to what actually happened.”

Predictably, several other major Fox hosts have also torched CNN over the last day or so, in light of the Zucker announcement.

Greg Gutfeld’s new late-night show, for example, ran a sketch on Wednesday night that pretended to be of a chapel service. Zucker’s picture hangs solemnly in the background, while a musician provides funereal accompaniment. The gag was that no one had anything nice to say about Zucker, and only recapped mistakes from his tenure.

The motivation for that sketch, however, seems to be contradicted by Puck News’ recap of a tense, hourlong Q&A Wednesday between Kilar and top CNN staffers, with on-air talent like Jake Tapper and Kaitlan Collins grilling Kilar particularly hard, while other staff lamented Zucker’s punishment not seeming to fit the “crime,” as it were.

Kilar declined more than once to answer Collins’ direct questioning about whether he’d consulted with other executives about the effect Zucker’s departure would have on the company at such a transformational moment. Collins said she put the question to Kilar, “given that it’s been reported that you’re said to be negotiating your exit from the company after the merger goes through.”

All of which is to say: This year was already going to be hugely consequential for CNN. But now that the network’s largely well-liked (inside the building) top executive who was deeply involved in editorial and in shaping what CNN+ will become has left — with barely a goodbye — it raises questions and adds another cloud of scandal to the network, at least for the near term.

Other Fox anchors, meanwhile, joined in the pile-on — including Laura Ingraham, who told her audience that Zucker had presided over CNN during “one of the most shameful periods in the history of American journalism.”

The host who follows Tucker Carlson each weeknight, likewise, also had something to say.

Over the last several years, Hannity told his viewers, Zucker “transformed CNN from a boring, left-of-center news outlet to a still boring, totally, completely, utterly dishonest, lying, anti-Trump, Fox-obsessed arm of the Democratic Party. Now, Zucker’s out. Bye-bye.”