What Now? Predicting the Next Moves for Some of the Highest Profile Talent from CNN+

The sudden, shocking collapse of CNN+ will reverberate throughout the industry for days, weeks, months and even years to come. With hundreds of millions of dollars and a massive marketing campaign gone to waste, the ill-fated streamer is likely to go down in the books as one of the cable news world’s all-time biggest busts.

Scores of behind-the-scenes journalists figure to be impacted, sadly — although incoming CNN president Chris Licht will hopefully keep his promise and minimize the damage to the rank-and-file.

But the story is different for many of the big names involved. In a strange way, some of the most prominent personalities connected with CNN+ might actually be in a stronger position than ever. At a time when massive change is surely on the horizon, there are a few CNN+ castoffs who figure to play major roles at Chris Licht’s CNN.

There are others, though, whose prospects are a little less clear. The regime has already made clear that it’s not beholden to existing power structures at the network, which means some veterans could find themselves on the outside looking in.

Here’s a look at some of the major players at CNN+ and a prediction of what lies ahead for each:

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Sara Sidner

After years providing stellar coverage of major events — particularly overseas, which is central to the stated mission of the new CNN — Sidner got her long-overdue shot to host a daily show on CNN+ and did a fine job. Her CNN+ program, Big Picture, took a deep look at the story of the day — and it’s a format which seemed to suit her well. A weekly newsmagazine, perhaps on the weekend (or maybe even Friday nights at 9, we’ll get to that later), might be a great fit for her going forward.

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Kasie Hunt

The former MSNBC host brings an extremely wide-ranging skillset to the table. Indeed, Hunt is more than capable of filling just about any role on-air for CNN — be it as an anchor, a correspondent, or a pundit. The guess here is that she will focus on the latter, with the network positioning her as a featured panelist on a number of its afternoon shows. But expect to see plenty of spot hosting duty from Hunt as well, with perhaps a bit of work as a Capitol Hill correspondent thrown in.

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Brian Stelter

The future of the Reliable Sources host is the single most fascinating indicator of where the network is going under its new leadership, and the degree to which it will truly look to deemphasize opinion content. Relative to other shows on the network, Reliable Sources has found an audience on Sunday mornings in the 11 a.m. timeslot. But the relentless Fox News coverage which has been a weekly staple of Stelter’s program will likely be considered objectionable by top Discovery shareholder John Malone.

Stelter figures to get a chance to conform to the new mission, and see if he can draw an audience without using Fox News as a punching bag every Sunday morning. And indeed, his program has seemed to have a reduced emphasis on Fox in recent weeks and produced worthwhile segments — like a fascinating debate with New Yorker writer Masha Gessen about how Russia should be covered. Still, it’s not impossible to imagine mutual frustration setting in at some point.

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Kate Bolduan

Status quo should prevail, for awhile at least, with the host of the 11 a.m. show At This Hour on CNN. But there’s an argument to be made that — with the exception of Inside Politics at noon — the shows which air between 9 a.m and 4 p.m. on CNN are all very similar. Bolduan’s incisive interview skills set her apart and make her deserving of an ongoing presence in the CNN lineup. And her CNN+ offering was reportedly one of the strongest performers on the streamer, making it likely that her name is prominent in Chris Licht’s blueprint. That said, some sort of a retooling of her show might well be on the table — perhaps a timeslot change, or the addition of a co-anchor — if only to make her program stand out more in the CNN daytime lineup.

Noam Galai/Getty Images CNN+

Cari Champion, Rex Chapman, Jemele Hill

Only three episodes of Chapman’s interview show have aired, and Champion and Hill’s Speak Easy hasn’t even launched at all. But it’s just hard to see any of these three high-profile CNN+ hires staying on for any length of time at the new CNN, given the widely-accepted industry buzz that the network is looking to scale back on opinion programming. Chapman has an affable persona, but his early work has been choppy. Champion and Hill, on the other hand, are sure to find a new home soon — hopefully together, because their work together on Vice showed they have excellent chemistry. (Chef Alison Roman, who was slated to host a cooking show on CNN+, can also be included in this category.)

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Audie Cornish

Like Champion and Hill, the former NPR host never even had a chance to get her CNN+ program off the ground. Cornish’s CNN prospects, though, look far more rosy. A program in the style of Cornish’s All Things Considered would be a superb addition to CNN’s Sunday morning lineup. The network seems likely make room for her somewhere in the schedule, and it would be wise to do so, because she could well become a leading CNN star.

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Wolf Blitzer

The cable news legend was the most surprising of all the names in the CNN+ daily lineup. While others like Jake Tapper, Don Lemon, and Anderson Cooper made small contributions, Blitzer hosted a nightly newscast exclusively for the streamer. It seemed odd that Blitzer would add so significantly to his daily workload, which is why some like our Alex Griffing believed that the CNN+ move may have been part of a plan to phase him out of CNN’s traditional linear product.

The network pushed back strongly at that premise, insisting that the venerable Blitzer isn’t going anywhere. But while he might have a show for as long as he wants it, there’s reason to think that show might not necessarily take place at 6 p.m. CNN could conceivably do what MSNBC has done with another industry titan, Andrea Mitchell, and move Blitzer to the noon hour — to give some gravitas to the midday lineup.

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Chris Wallace

And here is the most fascinating of all the CNN+ castoffs. The streamer’s no. 1 signature star.

As our Alex Griffing pointed out in a column immediately after the streamer’s crash, Wallace emerges from the CNN+ mess with his reputation fully in tact, and possibly even enhanced. Whatever news CNN+ made in its three weeks on the air, Chris Wallace was the one to make it. He showed himself to be highly adept at the longform interview, and proved beyond any doubt that he must be considered a major player at CNN.

So where does that put him? Does Wallace want to return to his old Sunday morning stomping ground? The problem there is Jake Tapper has already carved out his real estate in that spot, and Sunday morning just isn’t big enough for the two frenemies to share.

With the 9 p.m. weeknight slot wide open, Wallace makes an extremely logical fit. The question is, at age 74, does he want to keep up the grind of a nightly show? Possibly, for a shot at prime time cable news glory. The former Fox News anchor was ticketed for a four night a week schedule on CNN+, and that might be something he’d be willing to maintain. (A Sara Sidner newsmagazine would slot in neatly on Fridays, in this proposal.)

Further, Wallace, in his brief stint, showed that the format worked. He looms the successor to Larry King that CNN has never found. Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? was very much hit-or-miss on the guest front. (Joan Collins and Diane von Furstenberg were among the more notable whiffs.) But with the dramatically larger audience that CNN at 9 p.m. can bring, the prediction here is that everyone will be talking to Chris Wallace soon enough. And he might even be the face of the new CNN.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.