CNN’s New Late-Afternoon: “New And Enticing Way To Look At The World”

> First on TVNewser: Memo outlines impending “staffing level changes”

Jon Klein is now on the record: “CNN will debut a three-hour, late-afternoon show hosted by Wolf Blitzer that will replace Crossfire and Inside Politics sometime this summer,” the Hollywood Reporter’s Paul Gough summarizes. The show does not yet have a name. Klein says the show will “offer a new and enticing way to look at the world for busy people.”

D.C. bureau chief David Bohrman sees a dynamic three hours of news: “Breaking news really breaks out in the 3 to 6 hour. It must be two or three times every week that the programs we have now are interrupted by breaking news,” he said. I’m curious what this other quote is alluding to: “It will look and feel really distinctive, unlike anything else you see on cable,” Bohrman says.

> The Crossfire name may not survive, but Bohrman says the hosts will: “(Paul) Begala, (James) Carville and (Bob) Novak will find a home in this program we’re going to do, but I think I’d like them to stop yelling at each other.” The last Crossfire will air June 3. Update: FishBowlDC is mourning the loss.

> Philadelphia Inquirer: “Blitzer’s staff will be selected from the Washington and Atlanta staffs of all three programs” — IP, Crossfire and Wolf Blitzer Reports. “No one is guaranteed a job, Blitzer says, but ‘a lot’ will make the cut. For the others, ‘there will be other opportunities’ at CNN.”