With Piers Morgan on his way out, CNN plans to give Jake Tapper, Michael Smerconish, Don Lemon and Bill Weir a chance to try out for the soon-to-be empty time slot.
Once Morgan signs off for good on March 28, according to Deadline, who first reported the news, the four others will have a couple weeks to test for the slot.
Weir will be the first up simply because he is filling in for Morgan, who is taking a week off for a previously scheduled vacation. The source who spoke about the tryouts did note that Morgan could possibly have a future role with CNN. Network head Jeff Zucker and Morgan likely will sit down and talk.
Smerconish is the newest to join CNN, having joined just last month for Saturday morning analysis and opinions.
CNN announced late in February that Morgan was out as host after several years of weak ratings for Piers Morgan Live, which was consistently beaten by other shows in the same time slot.
February was a particularly bad month for the primetime show as it featured six of the lowest rated episodes of the program's short history.
image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
