CNN President Jeff Zucker says he expects to leave his role at the end of his contract, which expires at the end of the calendar year.
With ratings reaching record levels in recent months, the 55-year-old Zucker, who has been president of CNN Worldwide since 2013, announced his plans in a morning call with CNN staff members on Thursday.
“I cannot imagine not being here right now,” he said, according to the New York Times, who cited an anonymous CNN staff member who was on the call. “I’m going to stay and finish my current contract, which, as I said, will keep me here until the end of this year. At that point, I do expect to move on.”
“The truth is, back in November and December, I had basically decided that it was time to move on now,” he added, CNN reported. “But since then, I’ve had a change of heart. And I want to stay. Not forever, but for another year. And I feel really good about this decision.”
His announcement ends months of speculation about what Zucker, who is also the chairman of WarnerMedia News and Sports, would do following former President Donald Trump’s tenure leading into the Biden administration.
“I love my job. It’s really that simple,” Zucker told the Los Angeles Times in a phone interview. “I have an incredible vantage point here. I felt that I wanted to honor the contractual commitment.”
Zucker has a personal history with Trump, as the two partnered together for NBC’s The Apprentice.
The CNN executive has floated the idea of running for political office in the past, although it’s unclear if that is what he plans to do in the future.
