CNN’s John King today expressed disappointment that his evening political show didn’t perform as well as he would have liked. The network is ending “John King, USA” later this month and extending “The Situation Room” to three hours. Here’s King’s full response to TPM:
I obviously wish we had performed better after the shift to 6p. But we have struggled and as we discussed the final stretch of the campaign, it just made more sense for me to try to help by doing what I most love to do: traveling the country and reporting campaigns. When I was asked to do this, we were always clear it would be temporary — daily newscast anchoring is not what I am built do do. But that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed the program didn’t perform better.
We made the decision over the course of the past couple of weeks as part of discussions about the need to bolster the network’s campaign coverage heading into the conventions and the final weeks.
I wanted to make sure the show staff would be protected – and they will be. And my passion has always been reporting and traveling the country during campaigns. We’ve got 146 days remaining in one that is, at this point, about as close as they make them. So I’d be lying if I didn’t say it stings. But I’m also very excited to get out of the office and out into the country.
