CNN has cancelled four shows. All four shows are a half hour long and the personalities associated with the show will remain with CNN. Crossfire was cancelled and this was not seen as a surprise since the show has been airing off and on since Malaysia flight 370 disappeared earlier this year. Crossfire, which was brought back last year after a several year break, was also only airing from Monday-Thursday with Wolf Blitzer airing a full two hour broadcast of The Situation Room on Friday. Crossfire also failed to catch on with viewers and regularly placed third or fourth in the demo. Today also marks the tenth anniversary of Jon Stewart’s appearance on the original Crossfire. On his appearance, he said that the hosts (Tucker Carlson, Paul Begala, James Carville) were “hurting America.” Then-CNN/US President Jonathan Klein later cancelled Crossfire and partially attributed the cancellation to Stewart’s comments.
Unguarded and Sanjay Gupta, MD were both cancelled. Unguarded was CNN’s first attempt at a sports show since before 9/11 when Sports Tonight, a CNN original, last aired on CNN. Sports Tonight continued to air on CNN/SI until that channel shut down in 2002. Rachel Nichols hosted the show and it aired weekly on Friday nights, usually following a CNN Spotlight report. The show usually featured an in-depth interview and then a discussion of topics and current sports events. However, Unguarded also failed to catch on with viewers, especially with stiff competition in the 10 PM edition of SportsCenter on ESPN. Sanjay Gupta, MD aired on Saturdays at 4:30 PM ET and Sundays at 7:30 AM ET. This past Saturday, Sanjay Gupta, MD and CNN Newsroom averaged 117,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo at 4 PM, this put Sanjay Gupta, MD and CNN Newsroom as the top show in the demo for cable news.
Finally, CNN Money was cancelled. The show was hosted by Christine Romans and used to be known as Your Money, stylized as Your $$$$, until the relaunch of CNNMoney.com earlier this year. When CNNMoney relaunched, CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker said in a memo that “the site will be more connected to CNN television than ever.” However, the money segments on The Lead with Jake Tapper and New Day have been rebranded to include CNNMoney. Christine Romans will continue to serve as Chief Business Correspondent for CNN and anchor of Early Start.