CNN’s experiment with relocating Jake Tapper to the network’s primetime roster is ending after he struggled to compete in ratings during the time slot.
“As part of a special lineup, Jake agreed to anchor the 9p hour through the midterm elections,” a CNN spokesperson said. “After that schedule, he’ll return to his award-winning program, The Lead. In the coming days, we will announce post-election plans for that time slot.”
Although Tapper only committed to do the show until November 11, “there had been some speculation that the network’s lead Washington anchor could take over the slot permanently.”
Tapper was reportedly being considered as a replacement for Chris Cuomo, who was sacked by the network amid an inquiry into the assistance he offered to his brother, then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D), in navigating a sexual misconduct issue.
The report said that one of the problems that Tapper ran into was he “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.”
After a brief stay at 9 p.m. EST, Tapper will now return to his normal 4 p.m. EST time slot.
Chris Cuomo was dismissed after women accused him of sexual misconduct during the network’s inquiry, including a “young temporary ABC staffer looking for a full-time position.”
Ross, who later became an executive producer at CBS News, said that at a going-away party in 2005, Cuomo approached her “and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock.”
“‘I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,’ he said to me with a kind of cocky arrogance,” Ross wrote in a New York Times op-ed. “‘No you can’t,’ I said, pushing him off me at the chest while stepping back, revealing my husband, who had seen the entire episode at close range. We quickly left.”