King Charles
GenreNews
Presented byGayle King and Charles Barkley
Country of originUnited States
Production
Running time60 minutes
Original release
NetworkCNN
ReleaseNovember 29, 2023 (2023-11-29)

King Charles is an American news discussion show broadcast by CNN. Premiering on November 29, 2023, the program is hosted by Gayle King and Charles Barkley. King is a co-host of CBS Mornings and Barkley is a panelist on Inside the NBA, which is also produced by CNN's parent Warner Bros, Discovery.

History

The show was the brainchild of former CNN chief Chris Licht, who had wanted more personality-based programming.[1] Licht pitched the series to King and Barkley separately who later had a "secret meeting" before joining.[2] The details were announced in April 2023 during the NBA playoffs.[3]

The program replaced CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip on Wednesdays. The program was described as "a talk show centered around the news stories and cultural moments that Gayle and Charles are most interested in" and not a straight newscast.[4] King and Barkley interview both political and cultural figures and take calls from media personalities. The program is prerecorded which makes it subject to preemption due to breaking news events.[5]

The first show drew 501,000 viewers which was the lowest-rated program of the three main news networks and 140,000 less than the debut of NewsNight the previous month, and CNN's lowest-rated debut in a decade.[6] The following week's show lost 35,000 viewers.[5]

References

  1. ^ Johnson, Ted (2023-11-20). "CNN Sets 'King Charles' Premiere Date". Deadline. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  2. ^ "A Secret Meeting Led Gayle King & Charles Barkley To Agree To Host "King Charles" On CNN - Full show on CBS". 2024-01-23. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
  3. ^ Goodkind, Nicole (2023-04-22). "Gayle King and Charles Barkley to host new prime-time show on CNN, company announces". CNN. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
  4. ^ Steinberg, Brian (2023-11-20). "CNN Taps 'King Charles' in New Bid for Primetime Crown". Variety. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  5. ^ a b Barr, Jeremy (2013-12-13). "What are Gayle King and Charles Barkley doing on CNN?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  6. ^ Steigrad, Alexandra (2023-12-01). "CNN's 'King Charles' premiere with Gayle King and Charles Barkley is a ratings flop". New York Post. Retrieved 2023-12-18.

External links

CNN original programming
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