CNN Turns To Charles Barkley, Gayle King

TV personalities Gayle King and Charles Barkley will headline a new prime-time weekly CNN show, “King Charles,” debuting in the fall, the network announced. CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht said in a statement that the show “will be an exciting new way we are delivering culturally relevant programming and unique perspectives to our audience, from two incredibly dynamic personalities.” Licht said King will continue to anchor “CBS Mornings,” and former NBA star Barkley will continue his current role at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports.

Tucker Carlson Is Leaving Fox News

Fox News said Monday that it was parting ways with Tucker Carlson.  Fox said “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” it said.  His last program was on Friday, Fox said.

CNN Moves Chris Wallace Interview Show to Fridays

Chris Wallace’s interview program, “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” will move to Friday nights from Sundays while continuing to stream on HBO Max, a change as the series prepares for its third cycle of conversations between the news veteran and people of note.  “Our viewers have come to expect real, authentic conversations with a rich variety of guests,” said Wallace, in a statement. “We’ve really hit our stride this season and I’m excited to continue to bring these timely conversations to both HBO Max and CNN.”  Guests scheduled for the third season include Carol Burnett, Bill Hader, Jay Leno, Andy Garcia, Miranda Lambert, with more to be announced in the weeks ahead.

Mary Bruce to chief White House correspondent

ABC News is promoting senior White House correspondent Mary Bruce to the role of chief White House correspondent.  The network has been without a chief White House correspondent since January, when Cecilia Vega left the network for a 60 Minutes correspondent role. Bruce becomes her permanent replacement.

Denise Richards returns to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Three years after Denise Richards walked away from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills amid a storm of gossip and drama, the actor has confirmed she is returning to the franchise in a guest role.  Even the production team had no idea she’d be at a screening hosted by Real Housewife Garcelle Beauvais.  Richards said it just happened on the spur of the moment.

News Magazine ‘InvestigateTV+’ Debuts In Fall

Gray Television today announced plans to launch a weekday news magazine program called InvestigateTV+. Beginning on Sept. 11, the news magazine will showcase “groundbreaking investigations featuring Gray’s award-winning InvestigateTV unit, plus consumer, health, and original content curated from Gray’s 113 local markets,” the company said.  Gray added: “In light of the tremendous audience reaction to Gray’s InvestigateTV weekend show, including average viewership of 1.2 million households per week,” Gray decided to launch InvestigateTV+ weekdays. Gray-owned stations will air both the weekday program (InvestigateTV+) and the weekend program (InvestigateTV) across all of its markets. In addition, Gray will make these programs available to stations in markets outside of its owned-station footprint.

NewsNation Expands To 24 Hours

Nexstar’s NewsNation cable news network, today announced that it will expand to 24-hours, Monday through Friday, beginning Monday, April 24. As part of the expansion, the network will launch a new live four-hour weekday programming block entitled NewsNation Now, airing 1-5 p.m. ET. Each weekday, NewsNation Now will cover the day’s top news headlines with live reports from network correspondents across the country. The program will be anchored by a rotation of journalists at 1-3 p.m. ET, followed by anchor Nichole Berlie from 3-5 p.m. Guest anchors will include weekend anchor Natasha Zouves, chief Washington correspondent Blake Burman, and correspondents Markie Martin, Keleigh Beeson and Brooke Shafer, until a permanent anchor is named.  Here is the weekday lineup:

6-7 a.m. ET – Early Morning hosted by Mitch Carr

7-10 a.m. ET – Morning in America with Adrienne Bankert 10 a.m.-1 p.m. ET– NewsNation Live with Marni Hughes

1-3 p.m. ET – NewsNation Now

3-5 p.m. ET– NewsNation Now with Nichole Berlie 5-6 p.m. ET – The Hill

6-7 p.m. ET– Elizabeth Vargas Reports

7-8 p.m. ET– On Balance with Leland Vittert

8-9 p.m. ET– Cuomo hosted by Chris Cuomo

9-10 p.m. ET– Dan Abrams Live hosted by Dan Abrams

10-11 p.m. ET– Banfield hosted by Ashleigh Banfield

Sally Ramirez Named WMAQ-WSNS SVP Of News

WMAQ NBC 5 Chicago Television and WSNS Telemundo Chicago TV has named Sally Ramirez to Senior Vice President of News and Akemi Harrison to News Director. Ramirez, a Chicago native who joins the stations from CNBC, begins on May 22 and will report to Kevin Cross, president and GM of NBCUniversal Local Chicago.  In addition, Akemi Harrison has been promoted to news director for NBC Chicago, effective immediately, reporting to Ramirez alongside Diana Maldonado, vice president of news for Telemundo Chicago.

Shomari Stone to Join WTTG in Washington, D.C.

Former CNBC correspondent Shomari Stone will join Fox owned Washington D.C. TV station WTTG Fox 5 DC as a reporter and anchor.  Stone was a correspondent for The News with Shepard Smith based at CNBC’s Washington, D.C. bureau. Before that, he spent over ten years as a general assignment reporter for WRC NBC 4 in Washington, D.C. He’s also worked as a reporter for KOMO in Seattle, CBS in Miami, and WINK in Fort Myers, Fla.