During the same week as CNN cuts 300 of its 4,000 employees, programmers have decided to ditch "Crossfire" a second time.
On top of that Atlanta-based Sanjay Gupta (one of the few on-air folks left out of Atlanta) lost his weekend show "Sanjay Gupta MD." It usually aired at 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays and repeated at 7:30 a.m. Sundays. Two other shows - "CNN Money with Christine Romans" and sports show "Unguarded with Rachel Nichols" (10:30 p.m. Friday nights) were cut as well.
Gupta will continue to work breaking medical stories, long-form reporting and documentaries for the network. His weekend show was originally called "House Call With Sanjay Gupta" and debuted in 2003. Many on his medical team will have to reapply for their jobs. Both Romans and Nichols will remain on CNN as well.
Almost no CNN programming is now shot out of Atlanta. Most on-air anchors and hosts are based out of New York or D.C.
And based on these cuts, the network is focusing more on breaking news and unscripted programming from third parties such as "Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown" and "This is Life With Lisa Ling."
After a 23-year run from 1982 to 2005, CNN's "Crossfire" returned under new president Jeff Zucker, who thought it was worth bringing back in September, 2013 with former Speaker of the House and Georgia rep Newt Gingrich, former White House staffers Van Jones and Stephanie Cutter, and former MSNBC host S.E. Cupp.
Unfortunately, it didn't move the needle and Zucker started pre-empting it when breaking news happened - first with the still missing Malaysian airliner in March, then in July again when another Malaysian airliner was shot down. After what had been a hiatus, the network finally officially canned the show today. All four will remain as political correspondents.
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