The New Day Time Host

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Anderson Cooper Will Host a Daytime Talk Show

By Brian Stelter
Published: September 30, 2010

Starting next fall, the television anchor Anderson Cooper will divide his time between his hard-nosed nightly newscast on CNN and a light-hearted daytime talk show on local television stations.

The syndication arm of Warner Brothers said on Thursday that it had signed up Mr. Cooper, 43, for an hourlong daytime show in the style of Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres. Ms. Winfrey is planning to end “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” the most popular show of its kind, next September, so local stations across the country are reshaping their schedules for a post-Oprah network TV world.

Hilary Estey McLoughlin, the president of Warner Brothers’ Telepictures Productions unit, compared Mr. Cooper’s forthcoming show to Ms. Winfrey’s show “in terms of range,” envisioning “an hour with a celebrity one day” and an investigation of women’s rights around the world the next day. His show, she added, will have a studio audience, and will feature pop culture, human interest stories, investigative reports and the occasional town hall meeting.

Warner Brothers, which like CNN is a unit of Time Warner, will now have to persuade local TV stations to pay for Mr. Cooper’s program.

Ms. Winfrey’s exit will leave a major hole in the schedules of her partner stations, and most are putting “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “Dr. Oz” or a local newscast in her place. The shifts of those shows creates vacant spaces elsewhere on the daytime schedules, which Warner Brothers hopes to fill with “Anderson Cooper.”

“This is one of those transitional moments,” Ken Werner, the president of Warner Brothers Domestic Television Distribution, said in an interview. He asserted that Mr. Cooper could be a “new voice of the 25- to 54-year-old generation,” a demographic that advertisers pay a premium to reach.

Separately, CNN said on Thursday that Mr. Cooper had renewed his contract there, and that he would continue to host the channel’s signature newscast, “Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees,” weeknights at 10 p.m. His existing contract was set to expire in a little less than a year.

In a statement that seemed intended to assuage concerns that he was looking to reduce his role at the news channel, which has been beset by low ratings, Mr. Cooper said, “I remain as committed as ever to my program on CNN, and will be with CNN for years to come.”

A daytime talk show could dilute Mr. Cooper’s personal brand and tarnish his news credentials, but it could also increase awareness of Mr. Cooper’s newscast.

Mr. Cooper is best known as a silver-haired journalist who travels the world for CNN. But he has long held an interest in the softer side of television, too, visiting the talk show “Live with Regis and Kelly” a total of 32 times in recent years.

Before joining CNN in 2001, Mr. Cooper was the host of a reality show for ABC called “The Mole.”

Mr. Cooper’s talks with Warner Brothers were first reported by The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday night. He has been pursued by syndicated television producers off and on for years, and Mr. Werner and Ms. McLoughlin acknowledged that he had been on their “wish list” for some time.

Knowing his CNN contract would soon expire, Ms. McLoughlin secured the blessing of his bosses at CNN, and met with him about a month and a half ago.

Two people with knowledge of the contract with Warner Brothers said it included a provision that Mr. Cooper’s first job, at CNN, takes precedence, allowing him to dart off to scenes of breaking news.

Ms. McLoughlin would not comment on his contract, but said the syndicated show would travel with him sometimes. “We’ve worked this out,” she said.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 1, 2010, on page B2 of the New York edition.