Poppy Harlow and CNN are parting ways, weeks after the news outlet put the veteran correspondent through a whirlwind era as one of the co-anchors of an ill-conceived morning program that was ultimately scrapped.
CNN executives “have been wonderful and have given me the space to make this decision,: Harlow said in a memo to colleagues Friday. “I am very grateful to them.”
The decision to leave was Harlow’s, according to people familiar with the matter. CNN executives had come up with a handful of ideas for a new role following the network’s decision to cancel the A.M. program she had been anchoring with Phil Mattingly. Mattingly has since been named a national correspondent. Harlow felt she wanted to take a break and survey other options that might be available to her.
She could probably use some time off. Harlow was named to co-anchor a new morning program with Don Lemon and Kaitlan Collins as part of a bid by CNN to compete more directly with other morning-news options, which include everything from NBC’s “Today” to Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends:” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Under previous CEO Chris Licht, CNN envisioned the program as something that would offer a broad take on breaking stories, burnish CNN’s news resources and shy away from some of the political posturing for which the network was becoming increasingly known.
More to come….
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