CNN is canceling 'Morning Express With Robin Meade,' another cost-cutting casualty

The budget-cutting ax is in full swing at CNN.

The news network is shutting down "Morning Express," the daily program hosted by Robin Meade that has aired on CNN's sister channel HLN since 2005.

Meade and her program's staff will be departing CNN as part of an across-the-board reduction underway as parent company Warner Bros. Discovery attempts to bring down its debt.

Meade's breezy, fast-paced news program based at CNN Center in Atlanta has a following among small-town viewers outside of the media hubs of Washington and New York. "Morning Express" is best known for "Salute to Troops," a daily segment celebrating members of the military and their families.

Meade also has a side career as a country music singer and songwriter.

"Morning Express" will be replaced by a simulcast of "CNN This Morning," the recently launched program with Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins.

"Weekend Express" on HLN will shut down as well. No date has been set on a final show, according to a CNN representative who confirmed the cancellation.

Ratings for "Morning Express" have been in decline as the number of people waking up with traditional TV continues to shrink because of cord-cutting and increased competition from online news sources.

"Morning Express" also had the challenge of airing on a network with little other live programming and had become a destination for true crime shows such as "Forensic Files."

The mission for HLN — once known as CNN Headline News — has become even less clear recently, as it aired a marathon of "The West Wing" episodes during the Thanksgiving holiday.

In a memo to staff sent Thursday, CNN Chairman Chris Licht said HLN will no longer produce live programming. Kathleen Finch, chairman and chief content officer, US Networks Group for Warner Bros Discovery, will oversee HLN's crime programming.

"Morning Express" probably attracted viewers who may have otherwise been turned off by a perceived liberal slant at the flagship network. Warner Bros. Discovery executives have said they want to shift CNN back to being a reliable, non-biased news source, believing it may have moved too far left during the Trump White House years.

But CNN is under pressure to shave more than $100 million as part of Warner Bros. Discovery's mandate to reduce costs.

Along with the "Morning Express" staff, CNN employees across the company were laid off on Thursday, including several longtime correspondents. Anchors have been spared in the cuts, according to one person with knowledge of the plans.

Chris Cillizza, a CNN political reporter and editor-at-large, confirmed on Twitter that he is among the employees who are exiting.

The layoffs are also expected to hit the network's large roster of contributors, some of whom are paid by the appearance and others under exclusive contracts that pay in the six figures annually.

CNN's cuts are part of an ongoing wave of belt-tightening measures at media companies as cord-cutting chips away at the pay-TV subscription fees that help sustain traditional TV outlets and ratings get smaller.

AMC Networks announced it will make significant cuts across its business. Walt Disney Co. has also said it will impose a hiring freeze; Comcast has offered buyouts to longtime employees; and Paramount Global is reducing personnel as part of a company reorganization.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.