CNN’s new morning program co-hosted by Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan will bow June 10. The network made the announcement Tuesday along with the show’s title: New Day.
The program, which also includes former KTLA anchor Michaela Pereira as news anchor, will originate from CNN’s studios in New York and broadcast live from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. That's a one-hour earlier start than the national editions of the morning shows on ABC, NBC and CBS. But it will compete with MSNBC's Morning Joe, which has amassed a core following with its frank political talk and sympatico between hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
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As previously announced, Good Morning America veteran Jim Murphy will lead New Day as senior executive producer with Matt Frucci as executive producer. John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin will continue to anchor Early Start from 5-6 a.m. but it will be truncated by one hour to make room for New Day. Like Cuomo, Berman joined CNN from ABC News.
The morning show will be the first real programming stamp from new CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker. Jake Tapper's 4 p.m. program The Lead - which bowed March 18 - was in the works before Zucker took over last January. And morning TV is arguably Zucker's forte, having set NBC's Today show on its 16-plus-year winning streak when he paired Katie Couric with Matt Lauer.
Of course, Zucker has already had an impact at CNN. He's jettisoned several longtime CNN contributors including Roland Martin, Bill Bennett, Maria Cardona, Red State's Erik Erickson (now at Fox News) and James Carville and Mary Matalin - who had been at CNN for decades and were pulling down hefty salaries to appear sporadically. He's also tried and abandoned a primetime discussion show that featured his pal Donny Deutsch leading a roundtable with conservative author Margaret Hoover, ESPN analyst Jason Taylor and ESPN.com columnist Rick Reilly. (Get to) The Point lasted one week in the 10 p.m. slot usually occupied by a rebroadcast of Anderson Cooper 360. And this summer, sources say Zucker is looking to mount a new version of the maligned left-right debate show Crossfire.
