Poppy Harlow Parts Ways With CNN After Morning Show Exit

Poppy Harlow Parts Ways With CNN After Morning Show Exit

Poppy Harlow and CNN are parting ways, weeks after the news outlet put the veteran correspondent through a whirlwind era as one of the co-anchors of an ill-conceived morning program that was ultimately scrapped.

CNN executives “have been wonderful and have given me the space to make this decision,: Harlow said in a memo to colleagues Friday. “I am very grateful to them.”

The decision to leave was Harlow’s, according to people familiar with the matter. CNN executives had come up with a handful of ideas for a new role following the network’s decision to cancel the A.M. program she had been anchoring with Phil Mattingly. Mattingly has since been named a national correspondent. Harlow felt she wanted to take a break and survey other options that might be available to her.

She could probably use some time off. Harlow was named to co-anchor a new morning program with Don Lemon and Kaitlan Collins as part of a bid by CNN to compete more directly with other morning-news options, which include everything from NBC’s “Today” to Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends:” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Under previous CEO Chris Licht, CNN envisioned the program as something that would offer a broad take on breaking stories, burnish CNN’s news resources and shy away from some of the political posturing for which the network was becoming increasingly known.

More to come….

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