Variety: Ryan Kadro, News Veteran, Joins CNN to Develop New Morning Show

Story from Variety:

CNN has enlisted a new executive to help it generate programming ideas.

Ryan Kadro, a veteran of “CBS This Morning” and several digital ventures, is set to join CNN as a senior vice president of content strategy, overseeing the development of new programming such as a revamped morning show and other new concepts, according to a spokesperson for the network and two other people familiar with the matter.

Kadro is a former lieutenant to Chris Licht, the CEO of CNN, and succeeded him as executive producer after he left the CBS morning program to work with Stephen Colbert on CBS’ “Late Show.”

His hire puts a trusted executive in place to create programming in which Licht is said to have a strong interest. Licht, who helped launch “Morning Joe” and the most recent iteration of “CBS This Morning,” is said to be eager to revamp to play more robustly against the A.M. competition and to find a new program to fill CNN’s 9 p.m, hour. Kadro is likely to have a hand in developing each.

Kadro is expected to report to Amy Entelis, executive vice president for talent and content development. In recent years, he has worked not only at “CBS This Morning” but as the leader of a division at the now-scuttled short-form content venture Quibi. Kadro was most recently chief content officer at The Recount, a digital political news site founded in part by journalist John Heilemann. He got his start in the TV business as a page at NBC, and rose up the ranks to become supervising producer at the network’s “Last Call With Carson Daly.”