Campbell Brown On CNN Move: “What I Am Doing Carries Risk, But I Wanted The Challenge”

In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein announced Campbell Brown will “be anchoring a show in the evening” with a specific time period to be determined “over the next several days.” Without saying exactly which hour Brown would occupy, Klein did acknowledge that “everybody is up to speed on the decision process.” That may include Paula Zahn, whose 8pm program is the lowest rated of CNN’s primetime hours.

Brown said goodbye to NBC News just yesterday with a farewell on the Today show. The mother-to-be will join CNN in September, but is being contractually kept off the air until November. That will only give her about 7 weeks on the air with her new show, before she would go out on family leave. “I am having a baby, I’m not incapacited,” Brown told reporters. “I hope to work right up until the time of delivery.”

Klein described the new program as “talk-focused.” Brown calls it a “rare opportunity” to tell “the stories I am passionate about.” “What I am doing carries risk, but I wanted the challenge” said the 11-year NBC veteran.

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