Report: Jim Acosta Mulls Possible ‘Exit’ as CNN Seeks to Move Him to Midnight Time Slot

Report: Jim Acosta Mulls Possible ‘Exit’ as CNN Seeks to Move Him to Midnight Time Slot

During Donald Trump’s first term, CNN’s Jim Acosta became the face of the media “resistance,” frequently taking on the role of showman journalist in sparring with Trump during press conferences and yelling questions at his press secretaries during the daily briefings.

At one point, after a troubling 2018 incident during a Trump presser involving a physical altercation between Acosta and a White House intern who was simply doing her job, the Trump administration yanked Acosta’s press pass. Though a court order restored it soon after, the bad blood between the Trump White House and Acosta persisted throughout the remainder of his time in office.

Around the time Trump left office in January 2021, CNN announced a new role for Acosta. Instead of being a White House correspondent under the Biden-Harris administration, they moved him to a weekend time slot where things did not get off to a good start ratings-wise. In 2024, they moved him to a weekday morning time slot, where he has been ever since.

Now that Trump is back in the White House, Acosta’s role reportedly may change yet again. Except it wouldn’t put him back in the briefing room; it would – if he accepted the offer – put him in the dreaded midnight time slot:

It was first reported in the Status newsletter last week that Acosta was pitched by CNN CEO Mark Thompson to move him from his one-hour slot at 10 a.m. ET to a two-hour slot beginning at midnight, a move that would “effectively exile Acosta to the Siberia of television news,” as it was characterized.

The report quickly sparked outrage among CNN’s liberal fans, many saying such a move means the network is bending the knee to Trump.

Sources tell Fox News Digital that the chatter is legit, with one insisting Acosta is “getting hosed” as a result.

“Acosta is a talented broadcaster who could handle any slot on the network,” a CNN staffer told Fox News Digital. “The midnight thing is shocking [but] it is what it is.”

While Acosta’s liberal fans are crying foul, the Los Angeles Times reports that the offer – which potentially would involve a move to Los Angeles – was due in part to CNN wanting to move one of their veteran and more respected anchors, Wolf Blitzer, to a different and presumably more visible time slot:

One reason CNN wants Acosta to make the move is to accommodate longtime anchor Wolf Blitzer, who is expected to leave his late-afternoon program, “The Situation Room,” and take over Acosta’s current shift at 10 a.m. Eastern.

[CNN Chairman/Chief Executive Mark] Thompson is pushing the plan as a way to give viewers on the West Coast a live prime-time newscast. Acosta’s program would also air on CNN International, putting him on in the morning in Europe.

The LA Times also reported that Acosta may “exit the network” if he ends up rejecting the offer:

 If Acosta decides against taking the assignment, he may exit the network, according to people familiar with his thinking.

My thought process on this is that maybe the struggling news network wants Acosta on the graveyard shift simply because, when it comes to covering Trump, he has shown a tendency to embarrass himself and his colleagues with his over-the-top theatrics and, in the process, create more headaches than it is worth.

A similar situation played out on MSNBC with Mehdi Hassan, whose anti-Israel/pro-Hamas coverage of the Israel-Hamas war in late 2023 turned out to be too over the top even for them. Though he wasn’t fired, his weekend show was canceled, and a month later, he left the network altogether.

Back to Acosta, the only thing CNN spokespeople are saying publicly about it is that “We are in active discussions with Jim about a new time slot and will have more information to share soon.”

Needless to say, it will be very interesting to see how this all plays out. Stay tuned.

-Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter/X.-

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