CNN Entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner is leaving the cable network to join “Entertainmnet Tonight,” two individuals with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. She will serve as a correspondent for “ET,” and will likely start appearing on the show in time for the November sweeps, the individuals said.
A spokesperson for “ET” declined to comment, and a representative for CNN has not yet returned TheWrap’s request for comment.
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Turner joined CNN in December 2011 in the network’s Los Angeles bureau as a reporter for “Showbiz Tonight,” and was later transferred to New York to contribute entertainment segments to morning program “New Day.”
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Over the past two-and-a-half years, she helped lead CNN’s red carpet coverage of the Grammys, Golden Globes and Oscars, and hosted a series of entertainment specials. Turner also reported live across various CNN platforms on the death of music legend Whitney Houston.
Turner began her journalism career as a news reporter at WEHT-TV in Evansville, Indiana in 1998. She also served as a reporter-anchor at WVUE-TV in New Orleans, a news reporter at KTTV, the Fox affiliate in Los Angeles, and as a sideline reporter for FOX NFL Sunday. Prior to joining CNN, she worked as a freelance reporter at NBC-owned KNBC in Los Angeles.
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Turner joins “Entertainment Tonight” following an upheaval of the show’s on-air talent. In July, TheWrap exclusively reported that former CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano was exiting the show after just 18 months on the job. He subsequently signed on as a meteorologist at ABC News.
Marciano was replaced by Kevin Frazier, formerly the co-anchor and managing editor of the syndicated magazine “The Insider.”