CNN will end Jake Tapper’s primetime show after the midterm elections, shifting the anchor back to his 4 p.m. weekday slot, CNN confirmed in a statement.
“As part of a special lineup, Jake agreed to anchor the 9p hour through the midterm elections,” a spokesperson said. “At the completion of that schedule, he’ll be returning to his award-winning program The Lead. We will announce post-election plans for that time slot in the coming days.”
Semafor first reported the news of “CNN’s experiment with Jake Tapper in primetime” ending after the midterm elections.
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The network had originally announced Tapper would helm the 9 p.m. slot through the election, but after an extensive promo campaign and high-profile guests (including President Joe Biden), there was speculation Tapper could ultimately become a permanent host of the time slot left vacant by Chris Cuomo, who was fired by CNN last year.
Still, the anchor was not able to trump his time-slot competitors in ratings, often falling far behind competitors Alex Wagner Tonight and Hannity (on MSNBC and Fox News, respectively) in total viewers and alternating with the MSNBC host for second and third place in the key demographic of viewers ages 25 to 54.
