Longtime CNN host Anderson Cooper said his struggling network has been inundated with "drama" over the last couple of years that hurt "morale" inside the company.
Though the host of "Anderson Cooper 360" said staffers have felt the weight of recent scandals and company shakeups, he told People.com he feels things are "back on track" after a disastrous few years.
Cooper told People this week about the tumultuous time at CNN over the last couple of years. A time period that saw the forced exit of two CNN top executives, the debut and shuttering of CNN’s failed streaming service, CNN+, and the firing of longtime anchors Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon.
Cooper gave a candid account of the feeling around the office throughout those years, telling People that "morale was hurt by all the drama, and that’s unfortunate."
Cuomo, who was CNN's most-watched anchor, was initially benched by the network in 2021 following revelations of his close involvement in the sexual harassment scandal plaguing his brother, ousted Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whom the primetime host actively advised behind the scenes despite suggesting otherwise to viewers.
Cuomo was then axed after CNN learned of a damning misconduct allegation from his tenure at ABC News. A former colleague claimed he had sexually assaulted her, which he denied.
Shortly after, CNN was rocked again when Zucker resigned ahead of a long-planned merger that put the network under the control of Warner Bros. Discovery. Zucker’s CNN departure was initially chalked up to failing to disclose a consensual relationship with fellow CNN exec Allison Gollust, but then-parent company WarnerMedia later admitted he also violated its news standards and practices.
Only a couple of months later, CNN suffered the blow of losing its streaming platform CNN+ only a month after its start.
Chris Licht, who was shown the door earlier this year, was selected to replace Zucker, and quickly angered Zucker-era staffers who didn't agree with his editorial vision. He fired "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter and then shifted Lemon from his primetime slot to co-host "CNN This Morning" with co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins.
While there, Lemon – who already had a history of making controversial statements – squabbled with his news co-hosts and uttered the controversial remark that GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley was "past her prime."
Lemon also got into an intense partisan debate with other GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy while on air. Ultimately, Licht fired Lemon amidst all the drama last April.
Licht also frustrated many at CNN with his ambition of making CNN less of an "advocacy" network for liberal politics and pushing it towards the middle. In attempt to fulfill this vision, Licht pushed for CNN’s now-infamous town hall event with former President Donald Trump in March.
The move sparked an open rebellion from the network’s biggest stars, including Cooper, who rebuked the move by CNN to platform Trump. During his opening monologue following the event, Cooper said, "Many of you have expressed deep anger and disappointment. Many of you are upset that someone who attempted to destroy our democracy was invited to sit on a stage in front of a crowd of Republican voters to answer questions and predictably continued to spew lie, after lie, after lie."
"And I get it. It was disturbing," he added.
Licht was let go shortly after the town hall.
Cooper recently commented in a New York Times interview that he didn’t understand Licht’s strategy for running the network.
"I don’t know what Chris Licht’s analysis was. I don’t have much confidence that I actually know what he was thinking," he said, adding, "I mean, I read things in the paper, but I’m not sure what the point of it all was."
Cooper told People it was hard seeing CNN being the subject of so many negative headlines during that period. He said, "It's never great to be in a place where you read the paper in the morning and there are stories about where you're working."
The anchor added, "And obviously this is an organization I care a lot about. They have been extraordinarily good to me, and I think the quality of what CNN does, the correspondents they have, the producers they have are extraordinary."
Now that Mark Thompson, a BBC and New York Times veteran, will become CNN’s new president in October, Cooper expressed hope for the future. "I think things feel like they are back on track," he told the outlet.
When asked about his views on the new president, he added, "I was given a heads-up before it hit publicly, and I've spoken to him. He's obviously got incredible experience."
FOX News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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