Sunday, May 31, 2026

CNN Cancels Gayle King-Charles Barkley Show “King Charles” For Having No Viewers

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“King Charles” is over, and I don’t mean the King of England.

CNN axed the Gayle King-Charles Barkley monthly show because no one knew it was on.

The network said in a statement: “King Charles has come to the end of its limited run as we announced when it launched last fall and was a great addition to CNN’s lineup, with the youngest, most affluent, and most diverse P2+ audience in its cable news time period.”

What a mess. “King Charles” was invented by Chris Licht, who was bounced by the network last year after nearly destroying it. This was his idea, and like most of them it was was bad.

So now what? CNN needs to get back to the Larry King model at 9pm. Hire someone — Chelsea Handler, maybe, or Conan O’Brien — and make 9pm a destination for high profile interviews. Larry wasn’t perfect, but if something big happened during the day you knew he’d feature it later.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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