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Cable News Channel Pulls Plug on Three Shows, Will ‘Reposition the Brand’; Layoffs Are in the Works

Nov 5, 2013  •  Post A Comment

A cable news channel has canceled three shows and announced that it is taking steps to "reposition the brand." The channel, HLN, made the announcement Monday, TheWrap.com reports.

A number of employees will be cut, including the staffs of "Raising America," "Now in America" and "Evening Express," which have all been canceled by HLN, the sister network to CNN.

"While change is necessary to evolve HLN, it is also difficult,” new network chief Albie Hecht wrote in a memo to staffers. “A handful of our family members will be impacted by today’s news.”

HLN is in fourth place among cable news networks. The channel will roll out its new schedule Nov. 18.

"News Now" will add an hour, while ABC’s "What Would You Do?" will return to the schedule at 5 p.m. weekdays. "Showbiz Tonight" will move to 6 p.m. and will broadcast live from the HLN newsroom with repeats at noon and 11 p.m., making it appear to be "the big winner here," the story notes.

"Not affected are ‘Morning Express,’ ‘Jane Velez-Mitchell,’ ‘Nancy Grace,’ ‘Dr. Drew on Call’ and ‘After Dark,’ which will remain in their normal time slots," the report adds.

The piece notes: "Though HLN remains in fourth place in cable news ratings, it made big gains in the third quarter in both dayside and prime time versus last year." The channel also has a higher percentage of viewers in the key news demo of viewers 25-54 than MSNBC, Fox News or CNN, the story reports.

showbiz tonight-hln.png"Showbiz Tonight"

One Comment

  1. Perhaps having some actual news every now and then might be a good start.

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