CNN Announces New Lineup; What's Next For Jim Acosta?

On Thursday, CNN announced a new weekday lineup that will take effect in March.

The network will relocate longtime evening anchor Wolf Blitzer from 7 p.m. to 10 a.m. ET, where he will co-host with Pamela Brown. Jake Tapper is also on the move. CNN will shift Tapper's late-day program, "The Lead," to a new time slot of 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Former morning host Kasie Hunt will replace Tapper at 4 p.m. Hunt's "The Arena" will compete with the recently launched "Will Cain Show" on Fox News.

(Getty Images)

Further, NPR veteran Audie Cornish will host "CNN This Morning" at 6 a.m. as the network tries to establish a morning presence. 

For years, CNN's morning programs have struggled to match the viewership and newsmaking abilities of Fox News's "Fox & Friends" and MSNBC's "Morning Joe." Well, that was at least the case until Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's recent trip to Mar-a-Lago.

CNN will also debut a new pre-morning show at 5 a.m. called "5 Things" with business correspondent Rahel Solomon at the helm.

Jim Acosta to midnights at CNN?

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 16: CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta returns to the White House after Federal judge Timothy J. Kelly ordered the White House to reinstate his press pass November 16, 2018 in Washington, DC. CNN has filed a lawsuit against the White House after Acosta's press pass was revoked after a dispute involving a news conference last week. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

But what about Jim Acosta? While announcing that Blitzer and Brown would replace Acosta at 10 a.m., the press release didn't detail where that'd leave the former fake news White House correspondent.

According to several reports, however, CNN plans to offer Acosta a spot during the graveyard shift, from midnight to 2 a.m. ET. A subsequent report from the Los Angeles Times says Acosta "may exit" the channel rather than accept the demotion.

It sounds like Acosta got the hint. CNN is done with him and plans to bury him until his contract expires.

And for good reason. 

CNN CEO Mark Thompson has reportedly urged anchors and journalists to cover Trump's second term with "an open mind." We are skeptical.

Thompson's predecessor, Chris Licht, tried doing the same and was pushed out after just 13 months. Put simply, CNN employees don't want to cover Trump fairly. They don't view him as worthy of honest and accurate coverage.

But to even try, Thompson must rid the brand of all the whacky, pretentious, TDS-suffering propagandists – like Acosta.