CNN is looking to change things up a bit and is doing so by revamping its morning programming. The news network will be moving Soledad O’Brien to take over the 7-9 a.m. show, while bringing in fellow Latina, Zoraida Sambolin, and Ashleigh Banfield.
Thursday, CNN announced it would be launching a new format of news and conversation in the morning. O’Brien, an award-winning journalist, will take the helm of the 7 to 9 a.m. ET show, with Sambolin and Banfield anchoring from 5 to 7 a.m. ET show.
Sambolin, a local Chicago newscaster, said she is excited to be moving up to a national news network with Banfield, saying, “I am completely thrilled to be coming to CNN. Ashleigh is an accomplished journalist with an incredible wit and dynamic personality. I look forward to collaborating with her and working together.”
During her time with NBC 5 News in Chicago, Sambolin became a leader in the city’s large Latino community, and now that she will have a national audience she said she hopes to “inform, enlighten and build a strong relationship with…viewers.”
O’Brien’s 7-9 show will replace the currently poorly-rated “American Morning”, which she co-hosted from 2003-2007.
