Kathleen Parker, the co-host of "Parker Spitzer," CNN's four-month-old, ratings-challenged primetime show, has been dropped from the program, CNN announced on Friday. Eliot Spitzer, her co-host, will remain, and beginning on Monday the show will be called "In the Arena."
"We have decided to take the show in a new direction," Ken Jautz, CNN's president, wrote in a memo to staffers Friday. "We will be adopting an ensemble format with several newsmakers, guests and contributors joining Eliot Spitzer each night."
E.D. Hill and Will Cain will join the program, Jautz announced, adding that Parker -- who says she wants to refocus on her syndicated column -- "would continue to appear on CNN occasionally."
The move had been rumored -- both inside and outside of CNN -- for some time now. Spitzer hosted the show solo earlier this month while Parker was reportedly sick, and saw a 68 percent jump in 25-54-year-old viewers. And according to the New York Post, Spitzer had been telling friends Parker's exit was imminent.
The 8 p.m. show was announced last fall as a replacement for Campbell Brown, with former CNN president Jon Klein's seal of approval. The roundtable format -- with Spitzer, the former New York State governor and Parker, the conservative columnist -- marked a shift to opinion-based programming for CNN, which had shunned the ideological fare favored by Fox News and MSNBC.
But Klein -- who had long resisted the rising tide of “partisan” news -- was bounced in September, with Jautz replacing him shortly before "Parker Spitzer's" October debut.
The new program, Jautz said, will "provide context and analysis through balanced and thoughtful discussions and interviews with a wide range of guests and newsmakers who cumulatively represent various points of view."
The ratings for "Parker Spitzer" simply never materialized. In its first week on the air, "Parker Spitzer," had an average audience of just 465,500 viewers for its debut week; disgraced former CNN host Rick Sanchez's "Rick's List" averaged 468,000 total viewers during its brief run in the same time slot. (It even lagged behind HLN's Nancy Grace, who averaged 550,000 total viewers during the "Parker Spitzer's" first week.)
That "Parker Spitzer" struggled out of the gate was magnified by Piers Morgan's relatively strong debut last month as the primetime replacement for cable legend Larry King.
Morgan's first show drew 2.1 million viewers, good enough to increase the news channel's prime-time performance by over 200 percent from its fourth-quarter average, but not good enough to overcome Fox News rival Sean Hannity, who averaged nearly 2.4 million viewers in an interview with Sarah Palin.
According to the newsroom source, there may be more changes on the way. "Parker Spitzer's" lead-in at 7 p.m., "John King, USA," has struggled in the ratings, as well.
Here's the memo from Jautz to CNN's staff, as well as statements from Parker and Spitzer:
I want to share with you some news today regarding our 8pm show.
