CNN Stars May Have Dodged Ellison Family’s Efforts To Clean Up the Network, but They May Now Face Brutal Budget Cuts

Many CNN personalities reportedly expressed relief Friday morning when it was reported that the network’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, agreed to sell its streaming and studio business to Netflix instead of selling the whole company to Paramount, which is controlled by the Trump-friendly billionaire Ellison famil . However, the tranquility may be short-lived. “Unsurprisingly, the majority of CNN insiders impulsively view this as a better outcome than being owned by David Ellison, who until now had been seen as the frontrunner to acquire all of the WBD assets,” wrote Dylan Byers of Puck on Friday evening. “Mostly, they seem relieved that they will not have to work for Bari Weiss, the crusading Free Press founder and newly appointed CBS News editor-in-chief who was set to expand her remit to a combined CNN-CBS newsroom if Ellison had landed the deal.” For weeks, CNN staffers had reportedly been on edge due to the potential that WBD would be sold to CBS News’s corporate parent, Paramount, which is controlled by David Ellison, the son of the world’s richest man and a Trump supporter, Larry Ellison. Under the Ellisons’s management, executives are reportedly taking steps to address longstanding allegations of left-wing bias at CBS News. And CNN employees reportedly feared that if the Ellisons bought WBD, they would be subjected to similar treatment. A report in the Guardian said the elder Ellison discussed firing CNN personalities whom President Trump did not like, such as Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar, if Paramount acquired WBD. Netflix, Paramount, and NBC’s parent company, Comcast, submitted bids to acquire some or all of WBD. Netflix and Comcast were seeking to acquire the lucrative streaming and studio assets, while Paramount was bidding for the entire company — including CNN. On Friday morning, it was reported that the streaming giant Netflix had won the bidding war with its $83 billion offer to acquire WBD’s streaming and studio business. As a result of that deal, WBD executives will proceed with their plan to spin off its streaming and studio businesses, dubbed by media insiders “GoodCo,” and its declining cable assets, dubbed “BadCo.”A media reporter at the New York Times, John Koblin, noted that staffers were “concerned that an acquisition by Paramount could lead to ideological changes at the news channel” and that the deal should “quiet the concerns.”But with the Netflix news, CNN staffers were comforted by the news that the network will be spun off under a separate company and will not be owned by the Ellisons. The chairman of CNN, Mark Thompson, told staffers on Friday, “I’ve been asked by many of you what today’s news means for us. And the answer is that it will enable us to continue to roll out our strategy to secure a great future for CNN by successfully navigating our digital transition.”That calm may be short-lived as the deal means that the original plan for CNN continues, and it will be placed under the management of an executive with a reputation as a ruthless cost-cutter, Gunnar Wiedenfels. Mr. Wiedenfels has worked as the CFO of WBD, and shortly after he first took the job in 2022, he oversaw the cutting of 1,000 jobs. Mr. Wiedenfels is expected to oversee harsh layoffs and cost-cutting measures at CNN to help extract as much profit as possible from the cable network. To slash costs, it is possible that he will scrutinize the enormous salaries of its hosts to more closely bring costs in line with its diminished ratings. During President Trump’s first term in office, CNN saw a ratings boost. Between the 2020 election and Mr. Trump’s last day in office, the network averaged 2.5 million viewers during the primetime hours.Since then, its ratings have steadily declined. In October 2025, the network averaged 504,000 total viewers in primetime and just 77,000 in the key 25-54-year-old demographic. Despite the drop-off, many of the network’s personalities have kept their enormous salaries. Ms. Burnett reportedly earns $8 million a year. Meanwhile, Jake Tapper is reported to earn $7.5 million, and Anderson Cooper is said to make $18 million a year. While eight-figure salaries are not unheard of in the cable news industry, such compensation typically is offered to personalities with much larger audiences. In 2020, Mr. Cooper’s show averaged 1.89 million total viewers with 498,000 in the key demo. But, in the third quarter of 2025, his show averaged 616,000 total viewers. In Puck,s Dylan Byers previously suggested that Mr. Wiedenfels will scrutinize the network’s compensation packages, writing, “Gunnar will look at CNN and decide he can maintain relatively similar profits at a mere fraction of the cost.”“This will have perceptible ramifications on the talent side. Why, for instance, would Gunnar pay Anderson Cooper $18 million a year when Kaitlan Collins draws the same ratings at roughly a fifth of the salary?” he asked.The executives at MS NOW, until recently known as MSNBC, are also expected to scrutinize the salaries of personalities at the left-wing network now that it has been spun off from NBC Universal.

CNN Stars May Have Dodged Ellison Family’s Efforts To Clean Up the Network, but They May Now Face Brutal Budget Cuts

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