CNN is considering dropping Kathleen Parker from its evening news program “Parker Spitzer” and replacing her with a new co-host to serve alongside former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
The 8 p.m. show has struggled since its debut in October, averaging about 468,000 nightly viewers through late December. Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” averaged 2.6 million viewers in that time slot, and MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” averaged 874,000.
Overall, CNN’s evening lineup lost one-third of its audience in 2010, The Wall Street Journal reported. A CNN spokesperson said “we aren’t going to engage in speculation” about Parker’s future.
But Phil Kent, chief executive of CNN parent Turner Broadcasting, told The Journal: “We still think that form of show is the right idea for a network like CNN at 8 o’clock, but the execution has not been what we have been happy with up to date.
“It’s is a work in progress. We are trying to make that show better.”
Newsmax reported in December that Parker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist, was so furious about Spitzer’s on-air domination that she was threatening to leave the show.
The New York Post disclosed that she went so far as to storm off the set during a pre-taping, although she did return to finish the segment.
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