Disgruntled CNN employees feel ‘grass is greener’ at rival NBC News, media insider says

Disgruntled CNN employees believe "the grass is greener" at NBC News, according to a new report. 

Puck media reporter Dylan Byers, who has worked at both CNN and NBC News, put a spotlight on an ongoing mass exodus of CNN staffers who have bolted for the Comcast-owned news operation in his Sunday night column. 

Byers noted that longtime CNN anchor Christine Romans is expected to join NBC, and reported that CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas will make a similar move. 

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CNN has been plagued by issues that have resulted in low morale over the past year.  (REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo)

"Romans and Melas will join a small diaspora of CNN talent and executives who have recently left Hudson Yards for 30 Rock, including Laura Jarrett, now NBC’s senior legal correspondent, and Ana Cabrera, now an MSNBC anchor. Off camera, Rebecca Kutler, the former head of programming for CNN+ who was once a treasured part of the Jeff Zucker inner circle, is now MSNBC’s senior vice president of content strategy; longtime CNN producer David Gelles is now the executive producer for NBC’s ‘Meet The Press,’" Byers wrote. 

"And, even as NBC adds CNN alumni to its ranks, CNN has added CNBC’s Kayla Tausche as a White House correspondent," Byers continued. "But for many, it seems, the grass is greener over at 30 Rock."

Romans did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Melas directed Fox News Digital to her agent, who did not immediately respond. 

Byers wrote that "much of this is due to CNN’s own struggles," because the network has struggled in the ratings department and "seems to be suffering an identity crisis under a quadrumvirate leadership team that has not articulated a bold vision for the post-Licht future."

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Puck media reporter Dylan Byers, who has worked at both CNN and NBC News, put a spotlight on an ongoing mass exodus of CNN staffers who have bolted for the Comcast-owned news operation (REUTERS)

He then quoted an MSNBC insider who bashed the liberal network’s competitor. 

"It always helps when your competition sets themselves on fire," an MSNBC source told Byers, referring to CNN’s ongoing issues. 

CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

During the second quarter of 2023, CNN averaged a meager 463,000 total day viewers compared to 1.2 million for Fox News and 796,000 for MSNBC. During primetime, CNN managed only 573,000 average viewers while Fox News nearly tripled that total with 1.7 million. But ratings aren’t the network’s only issue. 

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Beloved former boss Jeff Zucker was forced out last year ahead of a long-planned merger that put CNN under the control of Warner Bros. Discovery. The new regime immediately eliminated CNN’s much-publicized stream service, and that was just the start of post-Zucker chaos. 

Chris Licht, who was hand-picked by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav "tamp down spectacle" that was rampant during the Zucker era, was fired in June after just over a year on the job after completely losing the newsroom. Licht was regularly attacked by liberal media critics for such moves as doing a town hall with former President Trump, with much of the criticism coming from his own employees. 

In recent memory, CNN has also fired Don Lemon, rearranged anchor timeslots several times to no avail, went over a year without a permanent 9 p.m. ET host, and fired top media relations executives after an unflattering profile of Licht embarrassed the network. CNN employees have also been plagued with low morale while rank-and-file staffers question the direction of the network. 

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