Looking for a morning lift

THE makeover of CNN continued Wednesday as the cable news network announced a new team for its faltering a.m. show “American Morning,” now to be anchored by John Roberts, a veteran CBS correspondent, and Kiran Chetry, a new hire from rival Fox News.

Starting April 16, Roberts and Chetry will take over for Soledad O’Brien and Miles O’Brien (no relation), who hosted the program together for less than two years. Their pairing failed to lift the ratings for the second-place cable morning show, which is now weathering a strong challenge from MSNBC’s “Imus in the Morning.”

In the first quarter of this year, “American Morning” fell 6% to an average of 372,000 viewers, about half the audience of “Fox & Friends,” the top-rated cable morning show. Meanwhile, the simulcast of Imus’ radio program averaged 361,000 viewers, a boost of 39% over the same period last year.

CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein said that he decided to make the change because the morning program is not matching the ratings gains happening through the rest of the network’s schedule, which saw a boost in viewership throughout most of the day and night in the first quarter of this year.

“We think we can do even better, and we think the show deserves to,” Klein said.

He praised Roberts, who came to CNN a year ago, as a “classic news anchor” with strong reporting chops. Chetry, who joined CNN in February, “lights up the screen,” the CNN president added.

Klein said that “American Morning” will continue its emphasis on delivering hard news, a departure from many of the other morning programs that offer up frothier fare.

“The more the others get away from it, the more of an opening that leaves for us to exploit,” he said. “It just makes sense as a strategy for us, and we think it can really catch on with viewers.”

Soledad O’Brien and Miles O’Brien have been reassigned to new positions at the network. She will become an anchor and special correspondent for the network’s new documentary series, “Special Investigations Unit,” while he will be CNN’s chief technology and environment correspondent.

The anchor switch is the latest in a series of changes Klein has made at the network since he took over as president two years ago. He raised the profile of anchors Anderson Cooper and Lou Dobbs and remade the afternoon schedule by replacing mainstays “Crossfire” and “Inside Politics” with “The Situation Room,” a three-hour news block anchored by Wolf Blitzer.

The latter enjoyed a rare ratings victory in March, when the first two hours of “The Situation Room” beat out Fox News in the key 25- to 54-year-old demographic.

matea.gold@latimes.com