"I knew on the day that I accepted my job at CNN that a ratings victory at 8 p.m. was going to be a formidable challenge. As I have been told over and over, this is the toughest timeslot in cable news," Brown said in a statement Tuesday. "Of course I pay attention to ratings. And simply put, the ratings for my program are not where I would like them to be. It is largely for this reason that I am stepping down as anchor of CNN's Campbell Brown."
Campbell Brown (born June 14, 1968) is an American television news reporter and anchor. She currently hosts an eponymous primetime show on CNN and was formerly co-anchor of NBC's Weekend Today. Brown won an Emmy as part of the NBC team reporting on Hurricane Katrina while with NBC.

On May 18, 2010, Brown announced that she would be leaving CNN.

CNN has struggled in the prime-time ratings as cable news viewers have increasingly sought edgier, more opinionated programming. Brown, a former NBC News reporter, advertised a "no bias, no bull" persona in a straight news and analysis program with a concentration on politics.

Brown said it was her decision to leave. She said she could say she was leaving to spend more time with her two young children or pursue new opportunities, and both would be partly true.

Noting that Bill O'Reilly, Nancy Grace and Keith Olbermann dominate the 8 p.m. cable news hour, Brown said she could never "inhabit the kind of persona" necessary to compete with them. "It is not who I am or who I want to be; nor is it who CNN asked me to be at any point," Brown said. "While the rest of the cable news world moved to opinion, CNN allowed me to stay true to my hard-news roots and supported me with a true commitment to old-school journalism. There is plenty of debate now about whether real journalism even has a place in primetime."

It is still unclear as when Brown's last broadcast will be and what will replace the show.

"We respect her decision to leave," CNN President Jon Klein said in a statement. "We will announce our programming plans in the coming weeks."



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