A not so subtle message? Wow! In a strange and somewhat sadistic twist of fate, Soledad O’Brien returned this morning to American Morning to sub for Kiran Chetry as co-host. N.B. Today marks the very first day after AM announced Kiran Chetry’s departure from the show on July 29. Ouch!
As readers may remember, Soledad herself was co-anchor of AM (for almost four years) before being unceremoniously dumped for Kiran on April 16, 2007 to jumpstart AM‘s anemic ratings. When then CNN/US Prez Jon Klein announced the shakeup (Soledad/Miles O’Brien replaced by Kiran/John Roberts), he noted that AM‘s ratings had faltered in the ratings while the rest of CNN’s programming had increased by double digits: he added, “We think we can do even better and we think the show deserves to.”
Unfortunately for CNN, Klein’s replacement team never really did too much better in the needed numbers. And, Soledad probably thought that it certainly did not deserve to do so after her ousting. And, now that her replacement Kiran is on her own way out at “the ratings-challenged morning show,” Soledad must have found a measure of sweet revenge to return to her former AM throne on the first day after AM proclaimed the end of Kiran’s reign.
Even if Soledad sweetly did not fill her own sense of shadenfreude, someone at AM apparently did. Soledad’s ill-timed fill-in seemed like a gratuitous slap at Kiran from that somebody. Perchance, a parting shot by that anonymous AM staffer who told Page 6 that “Kiran is dumb as a rock” (in its Halloween night 2010 story on possible big changes at AM by new CNN chief Ken Jautz)?
Kicking Kiran on her way out? Not necessarily the best idea: Some of the show’s most loyal viewers are her fans. But, with AM possibly on its own way out (as Inside Cable News suggested), perhaps, that AM somebody simply did not care anymore.
Tags: American Morning, CNN, John Roberts, Jon Klein, Ken Jautz, Kiran Chetry, Miles O'Brien, Soledad O'Brien
Carpe Diem 
July 16, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Kiran won’t be going back to Fox, that’s a guarantee. I believe she still has John Ferriter as her agent. Besides, I doubt she’d have any interest in going back there. She has truly shown her stripes as being left wing since she’s been at CNN, and I can’t see her being happy anywhere else besides another liberal agenda-pushing news outlet.
September 18, 2011 at 4:56 pm
[…] Kiran was leaving the show, it brought Soledad O’Brien in to fill in for her. At the time, the author surmised that substitution seemed to be a strange and sadistic slap at Kiran who had replaced Soledad […]
February 22, 2013 at 12:30 am
[…] Chetry and John Roberts to revitalize flagging ratings. Over four years later (July 15, 2011), Soledad ominously returned to the show to substitute for Kiran for the very first time after AM announced Kiran’s own […]
February 22, 2013 at 12:56 am
[…] Chetry and John Roberts to revitalize flagging ratings. Over four years later (July 15, 2011), Soledad ominously returned to the show to substitute for Kiran for the very first time after AM announced Kiran’s own […]