Gayle King and Charles Barkley are officially teaming up for a new weekly primetime show on CNN.
CNN CEO Chris Licht announced that the show will be called King Charles and will air on Wednesday nights starting in the fall and continuing into 2024.
“This show will be an exciting new way we are delivering culturally relevant programming and unique perspectives to our audience, from two incredibly dynamic personalities,“ Licht said. ”We are excited that they are both able to join us in addition to their current respective roles with Gayle continuing to anchor CBS Mornings.”
Reports that CNN was trying to get Barkley and King to do a show to shore up the news networks sagging primetime ratings have been circulating for weeks.
Barkley is the NBA hall of famer turned basketball analyst for TNT, which like CNN, is part of Warner Bros. Discovery.
“King Charles exemplifies the one-team, one-company mentality with Charles playing double duty at CNN and in his role at WBD Sports,” Licht said.
Both Barkley and King said they they hadn’t planned on adding new television jobs.
On NBA Tip-Off on TNT Saturday, Barkley said that when approached with the idea, he said, “Hell no. I don’t want to be on TV more.” But when he heard he would be working with King, he changed his mind. “Oh yeah. I’ll work with Gayle. That’s the only way.”
King said she felt the same way.
