11:56 AM PST 3/6/2013 by Erik Hayden
Jake Tapper's CNN weekday show The Lead is set to debut March 18, the network announced Wednesday. The hour-long show will air at 4 p.m. on weekdays, which moves Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room to 5 p.m.
STORY: Jake Tapper to Get 4 P.M. Slot on CNN
Tapper was hired away from ABC News in December as part of a series of programming changes made by CNN president Jeff Zucker. The Lead is being executive produced by Federico Quadrani, who was previously at MSNBC producing The Daily Rundown.
Other changes made during Zucker's tenure include hiring away Chris Cuomo (also from ABC News) to lead a new morning program at the network that will replace Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien. Recently, multiple contributors such as James Carville, Mary Matalin, Maria Cardona and Erick Erickson also parted ways with CNN.
