CNN Senioritis

NBC and MSNBC are just as vulnerable as CNN to the inexorable decline of the linear television business. But for many in Hudson Yards, it seems, the grass is greener over at 30 Rock.

On Friday, CNN Early Start anchor and chief business correspondent Christine Romans announced that she would be leaving the network after a 24-year run. In an on-air sign-off, her colleague Poppy Harlow called her “an integral part” of the joint, and said: “She is CNN.”

It may have seemed like dayside pablum, but it was actually a very insightful remark. In her two-and-a-half decades, Romans was never a marquee star or household name, à la Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper or Erin Burnett. She was instead, like so many of her colleagues, a reliable journeyman and team player who moved from assignment to assignment, show to show, and did so with admirable modesty and professionalism. She was very good on television—and, indeed, those are the very people who make a 24-hour news network work even if their faces only rarely show up on the promotional material.

At this stage of CNN’s history—amid the detritus of the Chris Licht era, the network’s lingering identity crisis, and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the parentco’s long-term plans—many of these stalwarts seem to be loose in the saddle. Increasingly, they are looking across town to the only place left: NBCUniversal. Romans, I have learned, will soon continue her career at NBC News. (She is likely to be replaced on Early Start by CNN International correspondent Rahel Solomon, I’m told.) I’ve also learned that Chloe Melas, CNN’s longtime entertainment reporter, will leave CNN for NBC News.