This week, New Day will have a new team. All this week, Brooke Baldwin, who usually anchors from 2-4 P.M., will fill-in for New Day co-anchor Kate Bolduan and anchor alongside Chris Cuomo and Michaela Periera. However, some media commentators and reporters are wondering if this is an attempt to test out new anchor combinations on the struggling morning show. Some reporters, like Scott Jones on FTVLive, used Baldwin’s tweet announcing her appearance as possible evidence. In her tweet, Baldwin had mentioned the Twitter handles of Cuomo, Periera, weather anchor Indra Petersons, and Early Start anchor John Berman. John Bermna frequently contributes to New Day and is the regular substitute co-anchor. FTVLive reported several months ago of drama behind the scenes of New Day, including allegations that Cuomo has met with CNN President Jeff Zucker and requested that Bolduan be moved off.
This is not the first time that Baldwin has been used to experiment with struggling shows. FishbowlDC reported that back when Starting Point was airing, Executive Vice President Ken Jautz used opportunities when Soledad O’Brien was off to focus-group the pairing of Brooke Baldwin.
UPDATE on March 10, 2014 at 6:32: The blogger behind CNN Commentary emailed and correctly pointed out that he had posted a story about Baldwin’s tweet yesterday, before FTVLive had. We’re happy to clarify and regret any confusion this may have caused.
-Tyler