Jenn Suozzo is expected to be the latest high-profile TV-news executive to join CNN’s new CNN Plus streaming service
,” will step away from the broadcast and is expected to be the latest high-profile TV-news executive to join CNN’s new CNN Plus streaming service, according to a person familiar with the matter.
CNN and NBC News declined to comment on where Suozzo may be headed but the role is expected to be a senior one, according to this person. In a memo to staffers, NBC News PresidentIf a deal is finalized, Suozzo would be the second prominent NBC News staffer to decamp to the CNN streaming outlet, which is slated to debut in early 2022.
Suozzo leaves as NBC’s evening news broadcast, led by Lester Holt, faces a formidable foe. ABC’s “World News Tonight,” anchored by David Muir, has dominated the evening-news field both in terms of overall viewership as well as in the audience demographic favored most by advertisers, people between 25 and 54. In the past two weeks, boosted by NBCUniversal’s Tokyo Olympics coverage, “Nightly” won more viewers in the advertiser demo.
“Jenn’s been a fixture in our control rooms, covering virtually every breaking and major news event from the past two decades, including the Miracle on the Hudson, the Boston Marathon bombing manhunt, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Michael Jackson’s death, tornado outbreaks, six presidential elections, and more,” Oppenheim wrote in a memo to staffers Wednesday.
Meghan Rafferty is expected to serve as interim executive producer at “NBC Nightly News” on August 16, according to Oppenheim.