CNN's new COO hire underscores bond between CEO Chris Licht and WBD boss David Zaslav

CNN CEO Chris Licht is astir to get immoderate assistance moving his quality web from a longtime adjacent confidant of Warner Bros. Discovery main enforcement serviceman David Zaslav.

Licht has hired David Leavy arsenic CNN's caller main operating officer, the institution announced Thursday. Leavy is Warner Bros. Discovery's main firm affairs serviceman and has worked intimately with Zaslav for much than 15 years. Licht took implicit arsenic CNN's CEO in April 2022.

The determination appears to springiness Zaslav an added model into what's going connected astatine CNN. Licht has drawn expanding scrutiny from his ain employees amid falling ratings and questionable decision-making.

Reporters and staffers openly criticized Licht's decision to aerial a Donald Trump municipality hallway with legions of screaming fans past month. Licht has since acknowledged accumulation issues with the accumulation portion lasting down the determination to broadcast a unrecorded Trump municipality hall.

Placing Leavy adjacent to Licht could beryllium seen arsenic a proxy for Zaslav. And, bringing successful an enforcement who has served arsenic a consigliere to Zaslav for much than a decennary suggests determination are a fewer boundaries oregon secrets betwixt Licht and Zaslav.

Leavy's hiring was really Licht's idea, not Zaslav's, according to radical acquainted with the matter. Leavy had been helping Licht find a COO for CNN, acting arsenic a sounding committee for candidates. CNN initially made an connection to a pistillate quality executive, said the people, who asked not to beryllium named due to the fact that the discussions were private. But Licht wanted idiosyncratic to commencement immediately, and that enforcement was inactive nether declaration astatine her existent position.

When that fell through, Leavy suggested helium whitethorn beryllium a acceptable for the job. Both Licht and Leavy past went to Zaslav with the idea, and helium signed off, said the people. A CNN spokesperson declined to remark

Leavy volition beryllium based successful Washington, D.C., adjacent wherever his household lives.

Leavy is acquainted with executives and operations crossed Warner Bros. Discovery and volition present pb CNN's marketing, nationalist relations, advertizing sales, facilities and different logistics.

Chris Marlin, CNN's caput of strategy and concern operations, volition present absorption connected generating alternate gross streams for the web extracurricular of television, the occupation helium was initially hired to do, according to 1 of the radical acquainted with the hiring process. Such opportunities see imaginable partnerships oregon sponsorships, the idiosyncratic said.

Licht's inheritance is amusement producing, with stints moving MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and CBS's "Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Leavy's hiring should let Licht to absorption much connected programming and editorial strategy and little connected logistics. Leavy volition person nary input connected the editorial broadside of CNN.

Licht has made important changes to CNN's TV programming, including gathering a caller greeting amusement and primetime lineup. The aboriginal results person been discouraging. CNN's assemblage fell 16% successful May from April successful presumption of some full primetime viewers and among adults 25 to 54, a prized demographic for advertisers, according to Nielsen data. Average daytime viewership fell 13% wide and 17% among adults 25 to 54.

CNN fired Don Lemon successful April and is moving Kaitlin Collins to its 9 p.m. primetime slot. Both anchors were portion of Licht's archetypal greeting show, which lasted little than a year.

CNN's wide and primetime viewership trailed some Fox News and MSNBC, according to Nielsen. Fox News Channel averaged 1.09 cardinal full daytime viewers and 1.42 cardinal full primetime viewers successful May. MSNBC averaged 736,000 daytime viewers and 1.16 cardinal primetime watchers. CNN averaged conscionable 416,000 successful time and 494,000 successful primetime.

In the past fewer weeks, Zaslav has had conversations with immoderate CNN employees to get their consciousness of however things are going, according to radical acquainted with the matter, who asked not to beryllium named due to the fact that the discussions were private.

But portion Zaslav and Licht aren't thrilled with CNN's ratings, they're linked unneurotic charting the go-forward strategy of CNN. Leavy's hiring lone underlines that connection.

WATCH: CNBC's afloat interrogation with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav