CNN‘s new show for its fall lineup is “King Charles,” a weekly Wednesday show hosted by CBS’ Gayle King and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports’ Charles Barkley.
In an effort to reinvigorate CNN, which has seen most of its primetime fall behind competitors like FOX News and MSNBC in terms of ratings, the network decided to bring in two hosts from two networks who specialize in two different reporting beats, Variety reported.
CNN Chairman and CEO Chris Licht said in a statement that the show “will be an exciting new way to bring our audience culturally relevant programming and unique perspectives from two incredibly dynamic personalities.
King, who will continue to anchor “CBS Mornings,” and Charles Barkley, who uses his former NBA status to commentate on TNT, a media company owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, will do a show that doesn’t feel liberal or conservative, and it will sometimes veer away from politics and talk about pop culture.
“I want the show to be nonpolitical,” said Barkley, though he added that the show would touch on politics. “You know (Gayle King) is going to be a straight shooter. I’m going to be a straight shooter.”
“I know she’s going to be fair and honest and you know I’m going to do the same thing,” he said.
“I think that decorum and courtesy and kindness always work,” King said. “But everybody I know has an opinion on something. We just need to figure out a way to have a good conversation without tearing each other down. And I think we can do that.”
“We don’t want to say, ‘We’re a liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat,’” Barkley said. “That’s one of the things that’s already ruined television in general.”
Compared to 2022, cable news ratings are down across the board, even as Russia invades Ukraine and the 2024 presidential election looms, with CNN‘s drop the most dramatic, a 61 percent drop in prime time in March.
CNN has been under new management for a year, with Warner Bros. Discovery hiring ex-CBS producer Licht to run the network.
Licht’s revamp of “CNN This Morning” is not performing as well as planned, with co-host Don Lemon, who does not work for CNN at this time, infamously making a sexist comment that rubbed viewers and his co-hosts the wrong way.
