Why Jeff Zucker’s Abrupt Departure From CNN Creates a Big Headache for David Zaslav

variety.com:

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDiscovery CEO David Zaslav just added another big item to his long to-do list in preparation for the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger: Find a strong replacement for CNN chief Jeff Zucker.Zucker shocked the industry by stepping down from WarnerMedia, where he was CNN president and chairman of news and sports for WarnerMedia, after an investigation into the conduct of now-fired CNN anchor Chris Cuomo revealed that Zucker had not disclosed that he had a consensual romantic relationship with a colleague.

The colleague who went unnamed in Zucker’s resignation memo to staff is Allison Gollust, CNN’s chief marketing officer and a longtime Zucker lieutenant going back to their respective tenures at NBC.

Sorting through plans for leadership ahead of AT&T’s $43 billion spinoff of WarnerMedia to Discovery, which is expected to close in the second quarter, is already a huge challenge for a deal of this size.

But Zucker’s abrupt resignation leaves Zaslav, who will be CEO of the newly minted Warner Bros. Discovery, with an immediate problem at a time when the deal is in regulatory review limbo.