TV anchor Gayle King and basketball icon Charles Barkley are seeking to finalize a deal that will put them both in a CNN primetime slot.
The deal will reportedly have the two celebrities lead a primetime show jointly for one hour each week on the fledgling network. Per Variety:
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that a deal involving King was nearing completion, but it has been an open secret in TV-news circles that CNN has been courting both personalities — and others like them — for some time.
CBS News declined to offer immediate comment on expectations it had for King, who is also the center of its ‘CBS Mornings’ on weekdays — a critical generator of ad dolls for the Paramount Global news-and-stations division. A spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, which has relied on Barkley for years as a host of its popular ‘Inside the NBA,’ could not be reached for immediate comment. Warner Bros. Discovery also owns CNN.
“We don’t have anything set in stone. I’m only considering it because of my respect for Gayle,” Barkley told the New York Post in January.
Barkley also asserted he had no interest in ever doing a daily show on CNN. “That is never going to happen,” he said. The basketball icon also believed his talent could help elevate CNN back to its former glory, the days in which it appeared more as a neutral source for news.
“I just want to help the company because obviously, it is a shit show right now. Anything I can do to help,” Barkley said.
While Charles Barkley could hardly be considered a friend of conservatives, he has been known to color outside the lines and offer a politically incorrect take on occasion. He took a turn for the worse, however, when he publicly blamed the unvaccinated for prolonged lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
“You’ve got these idiots out here who don’t want to take the vaccine and who don’t want to wear a mask, and they’re out here getting people sick and killing people all over the country, and some of these countries won’t let you go there,” he said at the time.