On the heels of moving chief anchor Fred Graham off morning program Open Court, Court TV is losing Hollywood Heat host A.J. Hammer. Hammer, who has been at the network for four and a half years, will leave Court TV to focus on his hosting duties for CNN Headline News’ nightly entertainment program Showbiz Tonight.
Hammer has hosted Headline’s Showbiz since its inception in February, taking on sole hosting responsibilities when his co-host Karen Bryant left the show earlier this year.
Taking over on Heat is Lynne White, who co-anchored The WB’s morning news in New York from May 2000 until earlier this year. Heat, which runs at 11 p.m. Thursdays, tracks legal news in the entertainment industry. Before moving to The WB, White anchored and reported for both Good Day New York and Fox 5’s 10 o’clock news on WNEW New York.
Earlier this week, Court TV announced that, beginning Jan. 1, its chief anchor and managing editor Fred Graham will leave Open Court, the trial-coverage and analysis program he has anchored from New York for the past four years, to head up the network’s editorial board in Washington.
