Chris Licht was the golden boy of television production. He had the "Midas touch," or so everyone thought. He created Morning Joe at MSNBC. He fixed CBS This Morning. He even turned Stephen Colbert’s Late Show into a ratings juggernaut. But then came CNN.
In May 2022, Licht stepped into the CEO role at the world’s most famous news network. Just thirteen months later, he was out. It wasn't just a firing; it was a public execution in the court of media opinion. People still talk about it. Why did the man who couldn't miss suddenly strike out so hard?
The answer isn't just about one bad town hall or a single magazine article. It’s about a fundamental clash between a producer’s ego and a newsroom’s soul.
The Zucker Shadow and the 22nd Floor
When Chris Licht took over, he didn't just inherit a network; he inherited a ghost. Jeff Zucker, the previous boss, was beloved by the staff. Zucker was a "wartime" leader who stood by his people and lived in the trenches.
Licht did the opposite.
One of his first moves was moving his office. Zucker had worked on the 17th floor, right in the thick of the newsroom. Licht moved up to the 22nd floor. It was a secluded space. Most staffers didn't even know how to find him. It sent a message: I am the architect, and you are the workers.
Honestly, it set the tone for everything that followed. He started criticizing the network's previous coverage of COVID-19 and Donald Trump. He told his own journalists that they had become "advocates" instead of reporters.
Think about that for a second. You walk into a room of people who have been working 80-hour weeks covering a global pandemic and a chaotic presidency, and you tell them they did it wrong. It’s a bold move. Maybe too bold.
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That "Extra Trumpy" Town Hall
If there was a "point of no return," it was May 10, 2023. CNN hosted a town hall with Donald Trump in New Hampshire.
Licht wanted to prove that CNN could be a home for Republicans again. He wanted to "reset" the brand. To do this, he didn't just invite Trump; he curated the audience. According to reporting from Tim Alberta at The Atlantic, Licht specifically asked for the crowd to be "extra Trumpy."
The result? A disaster.
The audience cheered when Trump insulted the moderator, Kaitlan Collins. They laughed at his jokes about sexual assault. It looked less like a journalistic inquiry and more like a campaign rally aired on a "neutral" network. Inside CNN, the morale didn't just drop—it cratered. Journalists like Oliver Darcy publicly criticized their own boss’s decision.
Licht stood his ground. He told the staff the next day that the audience represented a "large swath of America." He wasn't wrong about that, but he was wrong about how it would play on screen.
The Atlantic Profile: The 15,000-Word "Defenestration"
Most CEOs are careful with the press. They have handlers. They give 20-minute interviews that say nothing.
Chris Licht gave Tim Alberta unprecedented access for months.
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He let Alberta watch him work out with his personal trainer. He trash-talked his predecessor while doing bicep curls. He checked his mentions on Twitter (now X) during a holiday party instead of talking to his employees.
When the article, titled "Inside the Meltdown at CNN," finally dropped in June 2023, it was a 15,000-word wrecking ball. It portrayed Licht as a man obsessed with his own press coverage and completely out of touch with his staff.
The details were brutal:
- He boasted about his ability to out-lift Jeff Zucker in the gym.
- He suggested the COVID-19 death count was overinflated.
- He seemed more interested in "winning" the media narrative than running a newsroom.
Five days after that article hit, David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, let him go.
Where is Chris Licht Now?
After his ouster, Licht basically vanished. He spent over a year in what media insiders call "the wilderness."
But you can't keep a producer down forever. In late 2024 and throughout 2025, Licht started to re-emerge. He didn't jump back into a network chair. Instead, he started speaking at conferences like the New York Press Club and Yahoo Finance’s Invest.
He’s been pitching himself as a guy who understands the "trust crisis" in media. He’s essentially saying, "I tried to fix it and failed, and here is what I learned." It’s a classic redemption tour strategy.
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As of early 2026, he hasn't taken a major new executive role, but he’s active as a consultant and public speaker. He’s still defending his core idea—that cable news needs to move back to the center—even if he admits the execution was a mess.
What We Can Learn From the Licht Saga
If you're in business or leadership, the Licht story is basically a textbook on how not to manage a merger or a culture shift.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast. You can have the best plan to "re-center" a brand, but if you alienate every single person responsible for executing that plan, you're doomed.
Don't ignore the middle management. Licht isolated himself with a small circle of advisors. He didn't build alliances with the people who actually run the shows. When the heat got turned up, he had no one to defend him.
Watch your "off the record" moments. Even when you think you're being "authentic" with a reporter, you're always on the clock. Licht’s candor was his undoing.
If you want to understand the current state of media, look at what’s happening at CNN under his successor, Mark Thompson. They are pivoting hard toward digital and subscriptions. The "Licht Era" is now viewed as a brief, turbulent experiment in trying to capture an audience that might not actually exist anymore: the moderate, middle-of-the-road cable news viewer.
To stay updated on the shifting leadership in media, you should track the quarterly earnings calls for Warner Bros. Discovery. That’s where the real decisions about the future of news are made, far away from the 22nd-floor offices.