As CNN's new boss, Chris Licht faces an uphill battle

Indiewire

Licht was hired as the future CEO of CNN Global after turning around the fortunes of CBS This Morning and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. But as Indiewire's Tony Maglio points out, what Licht actually did with Colbert was stave off viewer erosion. Colbert's viewership is slightly higher than it was in April 2016 when he took over as showrunner. But in that time, Colbert's competitors, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, have seen their viewership significantly decline. "CNN needs some — or a lot — of that kind of drama," says Maglio. "Licht’s hire is meant to ameliorate the other kind, which was created by the violent exit of his predecessor, Jeff Zucker. Here, the odds are in his favor: One current CBS colleague told IndieWire that Licht is 'a stand-up guy.' In a memo obtained by IndieWire and sent to CNN staff Monday, Licht, described himself as 'a journalist at heart.'....At CNN, Licht inherits a last-place cable news network almost entirely reliant on major breaking news to gain temporary Nielsen ground. The Trump circus benefited CNN as well as <i>The Late Show, an opportunity that President Biden does not provide. He’s fodder for Fox News, while liberal-skewing channels CNN and MSNBC already split the blue-voting demo." ALSO: Can CNN recapture the adventure and innovation of the Ted Turner era?