Will Gayle King Bite on CNN?

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Good morning, I’m Dylan Byers.

Welcome back to In The Room, my biweekly private email on the inner workings of the American media industry—coming to you a day early with some breaking news. In this special issue, we go inside CNN, where C.E.O. Chris Licht, beset by falling ratings and revenue, is throwing a Hail Mary pass to see if he can recruit his old friend and colleague Gayle King for a weekly primetime show.

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Will Gayle King Bite on CNN?

Chris Licht is out to his pal and old colleague about hosting a prime time interview show that would still allow her to host ‘CBS Mornings.’ It could be just the sort of narrative-changing move he needs. Will she take it?

DYLAN BYERS

“What do you think is better about CNN since you arrived?” Chris Licht, who is now nine months into his tenure as CNN’s chairman and C.E.O., was asked in an interview this week with The Los Angeles Times. “Too early to say,” Licht replied, “because we haven’t really executed a lot of what we’re going to do. But I hope that CNN is better in that I’m allowing people to do their jobs and leaning into the talent that we have here.”

For many CNN on-air talent, producers and rank-and-file staff, more than a dozen of whom I spoke to after the piece ran in the L.A. Times, Licht’s remarks were...

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