As new executives at CNN try to right a listing ship, they’re calling in a familiar name — although not in the way you might think.
In a media release Monday, the network announced that Bill Maher would be coming to the network in an unusual format for cable news.
The liberal comedian and panel show host will be dumping a 10-minute segment that usually landed on YouTube on the network instead.
“HBO’s popular post-show segment ‘Overtime’ is coming to CNN on Friday nights at 11:30pm ET. Starting Friday, February 3rd it will air during CNN Tonight,” the network stated in a media release.
“‘Overtime’ features Maher and his guests continuing the discussion and answering viewer questions following each week’s episode of ‘Real Time with Bill Maher.’ Topics include news of the day, culture, business, politics, and more.
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“Maher headlined his first special on HBO in 1989 and has starred in 12 HBO solo specials to date,” the release continued.
“Recognized as having the ability to ‘consistently get people talking’ and an ‘eclectic guest list,’ Maher’s ‘Overtime’ joins several other recent partnerships between HBO and CNN.”
The reason HBO and CNN have “recent partnerships” is because they’re owned by the same corporate monolith, Warner Bros. Discovery. After the two merged last year, new CNN president Chris Licht promised major changes at the network, moving back toward hard news after spending the majority of the Trump years as a leftist propaganda outlet.
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If Licht and Co. have managed to turn down the network’s political bent, however, it’s clear that they haven’t tamed the beast or gotten anywhere in the avenue of hard news.
And the Maher news comes on the heels of the biggest failure of Licht’s tenure so far — namely, the entire week of Jan. 16-22.
According to The Wrap, Nielsen ratings only clocked CNN with an average of 444,000 viewers in primetime and 417,000 in the daytime.
In the coveted 25-54 demographic, meanwhile, the network was only…
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