By Christiane Amanpour, whose reporting from war zones helped define CNN’s international coverage, plans to leave the network in June 2027 after more than four decades. Her departure will close a chapter stretching back to CNN’s early years, as the network struggles to rebuild its audience and reshape its programming.
CNN chief executive Mark Thompson announced the decision in an internal letter to employees. Amanpour, 68, will reduce her signature CNN International program to a weekly schedule early next year before ending its run in the spring.
“After more than 43 years at CNN, Christiane has decided that the time is right to begin a new chapter,” Thompson wrote. “The program will conclude in May,” Thompson said, “and she will leave CNN at the end of June.”
Thompson described the departure as a personal and professional decision reached after extended discussions. “Christiane has thought carefully about this decision, and she and I have been discussing it for some months,” he said.
The announcement comes after repeated efforts to reinvigorate CNN’s programming. In November 2024, the network gave Kaitlan Collins an expanded role as chief White House correspondent while retaining her primetime show, part of an effort to adjust its political coverage ahead of President Donald Trump’s return to office. The changes came as cable news faced growing competition from podcasts, streaming services and online video.
The audience troubles extended to other prominent anchors. By May 2025, Jake Tapper had recorded his lowest ratings in a decade, even amid the publicity surrounding his book Original Sin, which examined the concealment of President Joe Biden’s decline. The slump underscored the difficulty of turning a familiar name and national attention into television viewers.
Amanpour’s career began in a different television era. Joining CNN in 1983, she went on to cover the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Persian Gulf War and the bloodshed in Bosnia, becoming one of the network’s most recognizable correspondents.
Her later assignments included the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks, the Arab Spring uprisings, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the war in Gaza. She also interviewed figures ranging from former President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi and Iranian presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani.
Amanpour will also leave her role hosting PBS’s “Amanpour & Company.” In a statement, she thanked “the amazingly talented people I’ve worked with throughout this incredible journey,” with particular recognition for her “beloved show teams and field crews.”
“We together battled to seek the facts, the evidence and the humanity, so that CNN could always broadcast the truth about the world and to the world, without fear nor favor.”
For CNN, her departure means losing a veteran whose career became closely identified with its overseas reporting. As executives continue searching for an audience and a programming formula that can sustain the network, another familiar connection to its formative decades is preparing to sign off.
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