Paula Zahn Leaving CNN
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James Joyner | Wednesday, July 25, 2007 |
Paula Zahn will be leaving CNN when her contract expires next week. She will be replaced by Campbell Brown.
The estimated 558,000 viewers her program has been drawing, on average, each weeknight this year, according to Nielsen Media Research, represents less than a quarter of the nearly 2.3 million who watch “The O’Reilly Factor” with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. Ms. Zahn’s program also draws about 100,000 fewer viewers a night than “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on MSNBC.
[...]
“We worked so hard to maintain a high quality of objective reporting on the air,” she said of her show, which recently featured a series of special reports about intolerance, including racial bias. “Yet what has become clear when you look at the landscape, particularly in the 8 o’clock hour, it seems pretty obvious the audience is drawn to opinion-driven shows. That is not what I do.”
It’s been quite some time since I watched any of the television talk shows not involving sports; I can simply get better content more efficiently online. Still, this strikes me as an odd move by CNN.
Zahn’s show was up against the signature programs of the competition. Why not simply counter-program with another pundit driven show (or put on a low budget show, conceding the time slot) and move Zahn to a different time?
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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What's going on here, is Zahn recognizes that CNN's version of "objectivity" leaves and with no chance whatever to cut it in the ratings.
Of course, whether not their version of "objectivity" actually is, seems another matter.
Personally, I would look for her to reappear on Fox, sometime in September.
Why not simply counter-program with another pundit driven show (or put on a low budget show, conceding the time slot) and move Zahn to a different time?
Zahn is over the hill Campbell is a young, good looking bird.
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