Campbell Brown Quits CNN Gracefully Due to Ratings Woes

By PopEater Staff Posted May 19th 2010 07:07AM

Campbell Brown is exiting her CNN post, admitting she can't compete with her cable competitors, The New York Times reports.

"The simple fact is that not enough people want to watch my program, and I owe it to myself and to CNN to get out of the way so that CNN can try something else. CNN will have to figure out what that is," she wrote in a statement.

"Shedding my own journalistic skin to try to inhabit the kind of persona that might coexist in that lineup is simply impossible for me. It is not who I am or who I want to be; nor is it who CNN asked me to be at any point," she added.

Brown, who has worked for CNN since 2007, has been up against Bill O'Reilly's 'The O'Reilly Factor' on Fox News and Keith Olbermann's 'Countdown' on MSNBC -- and has averaged only 591K viewers to O'Reilly's 3.34 million and Olbermann's 1 million.

She isn't the only CNN anchor to leave. Recently, both Lou Dobbs and Christiane Amanpour left the network.

Campbell will continue to host her show 'Campbell Brown,' until CNN finds a replacement.

"Today is about Campbell. We want to wish her well as she begins the next phase of her life. We respect her decision to leave. We will announce our programming plans in the coming weeks," CNN/U.S. president Jonathan Klein said in a statement.

But speculation has already started that Eliot Spitzer, the troubled former New York governor, will replace Brown in a 'Crossfire' style debate show, according to the Washington Examiner.

Spitzer himself, however, denies these rumors.

Tags: bill oreilly, campbell brown, christiane amanpour, cnn, keith olbermann, Lou Dobbs

Comments

(334)

Wednesday 19 May

By solomeeo

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Yeah right she stepped down on her own!

By JAUN

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SHE SHOULD OF WORN MORE LOW CUT BLOUSES.

By jessica

Actually, I bet she did step down. Nobody wants to be on a sinking ship. There were a few before her who stepped down as well. Even the much maligned Beck left CNN because the ship was sinking. He was not forced to leave either. He was one for a month after he announced he was leaving. They have not replaced him with anything that catched viewers attention either.

By Me

I agree. I don't think she stepped down voluntarily. It was probably like "You're fired.", she says "no, I quit". It's too late, they fired you already...

By Mike

Ahhh the liberals are slowly but surely going away. Too bad she didn't go away before the 2008 presidential election.

By Jeff

so...you vote republican, and then any news organization that doesn't report the narrative you want to hear is biased in favor of liberals?

It must be nice to live in such a deluded egocentric world. Fox News is obscenely biased.

If you think Cambell Brown represents us "liberals" you are not only clueless about journalism, but also about the liberal movement in this country. But go back to your safety net of Fox...where you get to have your narratives reinforced regardless of facts or opposing viewpoints.

By Paul Laughlin

Hi

What nonsense!

She was a good reporter and dealt with the facts and reality and not a preconceived extreme white right shell game.

By Carolyn

People an say whatever they want. There is a reason not only Brown's but all of CNN's and MSNBC's ratings are abysmal. Apparently "real people" have finally caught on to the BS that has been the mainstream news biz for the last 20yrs.

By trop10

LOL.. How's your math Mike... she has 500,000 followers...Obama won by 14 times that number... Gee Mike, no wonder you guys have such trouble with understanding economics... you can't even do 4th grade math.... Think before you post... the guy got 69 MILLION votes genius.... LOL... thats 138 times more people than watch her show... Holy crap what a clown you are.

By DeeDee

You think Campbell Brown is a Liberal?

By Bob

MIKE: Ahhh the liberals are slowly but surely going away. Too bad she didn't go away before the 2008 presidential election.
BOB: No, she did like Sarah Palin and waited until after the election to quit.

Thursday 20 May

By gEORGIA

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I don't think Campbell Brown is "to liberal". Maybe she isn't liberal enough. Sometimes she tries to steer the conversation to a more conservative view and not to the liking of who she is interviewing. Time will tell. She's a cute girl.

By Susan

Totally agree with you, Mike. She acted like a school girl during the election. Everytime she spoke about Obama, she drooled. Glad she's gone. Maybe she can get a job at the white house.

By Erica

Mike and Carolyn,
How about some actual facts to help your "fuzzy math." FOX News has 3.34 million for Bill O, sounds pretty good-unless you take into account that there are 300 million people in the United States. As for the mainstream media, between NBC, ABC and CBS more than 22 million watch their nightly newscasts...gee that's a lot bigger number than FOX...but by all means keep drinking that Kool-Aid!!!

By fxsts

FAUX is purely nopub propaganda. The leader in dumbing down America.

By David

Lou Dobbs was a liberal?

By fred hughes

To be honest with you, when I first looked at FOX news, I thought it was a cheep knockoff of SNL. And I still think it is a cheep knockoff of SNL. But, you are probably one of those persons that thinks the new immigration laws in Theirazona are O K too.

By stevebakerguitar

LOOK THERE IS NO LIBRAL MOVEMENT IN THE COUNTRY ONLY A RADICAL PROGRESSIVE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT..... THE DEMS HAVE BEEN HIJACKED.
THIS MOVEMENT IS ANTI AMERICA AND PRO GLOBAL GOVERNANCE.....
THIS WILL DESTROY THE ANERICAN WAY OF LIFE & LIBERTY...

By Jocko

It's a shame she left and Larry King gets to keep his job. King's ratings have plummeted yet CNN refuses to pull the plug. Must be that CNN is worried about being sued for age discrimination?

By newswiz

When argueing with a republican quest on her show during the presidential campaign, she inadvertently called obama "her guy" and defended the dem. That's when I knew her "no bias, no bull" motto for her show was fake and that her show wouldn't last. Bring back Glen Beck or Lou Dobbs, to bring more balance to CNN. Erica Hill would be a great replacement.

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