CNN's Carol Costello moving to HLN

ajc.com

Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

This was posted on Monday, January 30, 2017 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog

Long-time CNN anchor Carol Costello is moving to sister station HLN, she announced today on her late morning show.

This Friday will be her final day on CNN. She spent 15 years at CNN hosting shows and reporting out of both New York and Atlanta. She was in Atlanta hosting late morning news before her boss Jeff Zucker moved her to New York with afternoon host Brooke Baldwin in 2014. Currently, no weekday anchor is based in Atlanta.

Costello will now go to Los Angeles to host a show for HLN. Details of when her show will air or when she will start there has not been released.

"This was a personal decision and it was extraordinarily difficult," she told viewers today. "It was like cutting off my right arm. I have lived apart from my husband for many years but he was always close by because he was on the East Coast. But last year, he snagged a fantastic job in Los Angeles at LMU [Loyola Marymount University] and I kind of miss him."

She then thanked the viewers for their feedback, getting a bit choked up. "For that, I will be forever grateful," she said.

Her husband is Timothy Law Snyder, an educator and mathematician who is now president of LMU. They married in 2004.

Before LMU, Snyder was Professor of Mathematics and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Loyola University Maryland from 2007 to 2014.

Costello, 55, has covered a vast array of major stories over the years including Hurricane Katrina , 2008 presidential election, the Virginia Tech massacre, inauguration of Barack Obama and the Casey Anthony trial. She has also reported on subjects such as violence and abuse, bullying, coal ash and women issues.

This will be a second live show shot out of Los Angeles for HLN. Michaela Pereira hosts a show from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST from L.A. The only show left at CNN Center is Robin Meade's morning show.

She is the third woman to leave CNN for HLN in recent months. Besides Pereira, Ashleigh Banfield also used to have a spot on CNN but took over this past fall for Nancy Grace at 8 p.m.

I was an on-air guest a single time at CNN with Costello in 2012 to talk about Sarah Palin guesting on the "Today" show and Katie Couric guesting on "Good Morning America." I was never invited back. I guess I wasn't made for that type of work!

I am seeking an interview with Costello and will update this if I get one.