Next Stop MSNBC? Jim Acosta Threatens to Quit After CNN Offers Demotion to Graveyard Shifts
25th January 2025
Jim Acosta may soon be out of a job at CNN and begging for a new one at MSNBC, the only network likely to put up with his self-righteous preening these next four years with Donald Trump as president. The notoriously obnoxious host, best known for making a scene at press conferences during the first Trump administration, is reportedly threatening to quit after CNN asked him to accept a humiliating demotion by moving his weekday show, CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta, from 10 a.m. to the “graveyard shift” between midnight at 2 a.m.
CNN executives have even offered to move Acosta to Los Angeles so he can live in the Pacific Time Zone. They’ve pitched the idea by noting that midnight on the East Coast is primetime (9 p.m.) on the West Coast and suggesting that CNN is more than just “an Acela corridor network.” (It’s not.) Acosta wasn’t thrilled about the new time slot, which remains the subject of “active discussions,” according to a network spokesman. The host ended his show on Wednesday with a defiant sign-off: “Still reporting from Washington, I’m Jim Acosta.” The Los Angeles Times reported this week that Acosta may leave the network rather than accept the embarrassing reassignment. One CNN insider told Fox News the graveyard shift is Acosta’s only option if he wants to stay. “He could have a real slot, but the choice is to not give him one,” the insider said.