'CNN This Morning' Taps Phil Mattingly to Replace Don Lemon and Kaitlan Collins

Phil Mattingly and Poppy Harlow.Photo:CNN (2)

CNN (2)

CNN has tappedPhil Mattinglyto replaceDon LemonandKaitlan CollinsonCNN This Morningafter the show saw two of its three co-anchors shuffled out within weeks of each other. He will anchor the show alongsidePoppy Harlow.

Mattingly, 37, was named CNN’s chief White House correspondent in late 2022, replacing Collins after she moved to New York for the launch ofCNN This Morning. He will now follow in her footsteps again, bringing his political background — which includes covering the White House, Capitol Hill, the Justice Department and presidential campaigns — to the show each morning.

Opening up to PEOPLE in Decemberabout the challenges of covering politics in such a tense climate, Mattingly explained that “trust” in media is the number one issue he seeks to overcome with his reporting.

“I’m not naïve enough to think one reporter or one team can address all of the issues,” he told PEOPLE at the time. “But I firmly believe that every day we go to work — every story we write, every television package we put together, every live shot we do — there’s an opportunity to break through and deliver news that gives people a clear and unvarnished window into what’s happening in their elected government.”

Phil Mattingly will transition to co-anchoring “CNN This Morning” after serving as chief White House correspondent.Doug Mills/The New York Times

After the departures of Lemon and Collins left Harlow as the only permanent anchor ofCNN This Morning, she told PEOPLE that she had been working closely with CNN executives to select a new on-air partner that would help seamlessly carry the show into its new chapter.

“We’re talking constantly about the characteristics of the person that I’ll get to sit next to, what matters most to me and what the best fit is for the team,” Harlow, 41, said in July. “I really care about sitting next to someone who lifts up [our off-camera] team, who cares about the goals of the team, who is kind, who is funny.”

Kaitlan Collins, Don Lemon and Poppy Harlow attend the 16th annual CNN Heroes on Dec. 11, 2022. The three comprised the original anchor team on “CNN This Morning,” which debuted in November 2022.Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Lemon, 57, was a 17-year veteran of CNN who had been co-anchoringCNN This Morningwith Collins and Harlow from November 2022 untilhis dramatic firing on April 24.

Then Collins, on the heels of acontroversial May town hallwith former PresidentDonald Trump, waspromotedintoChris Cuomo’s former primetime slot and also taken off the morning show.

“After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” he noted onTwitter.

Soon after Lemon’s tweet,CNN pushed backon how his termination unfolded.

“Don Lemon’s statement about this morning’s events is inaccurate,” CNN Communicationstweeted. “He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”

Don Lemon.Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Lemon swiftly issued anapologyfor the comment, writing on social media several hours later, “The reference I made to a woman’s ‘prime’ this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it. A woman’s age doesn’t define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.”

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Then, aconfrontational interviewLemon conducted in April with Republican presidential candidateVivek Ramaswamywas cited as leaving “several CNN leaders exasperated” and is rumored to have contributed to the decision to let him go.

Two days after his firing, Lemon appeared at the Time 100 Gala in New York City. “You guys are more worried about me than I am,“he said on the red carpet. “Life goes on. That’s behind me, and we’ll see what happens in the future.”

source: people.com