CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour will leave next year, after 43 years with the network, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday.
The news channel has recently come under the ownership of Skydance, whose CEO David Ellison has faced criticism over his stewardship of CBS News.
Christiane Amanpour will end her daily shows across CNN and PBS at the end of this year. She will continue to host a weekly program on CNN through May and work on a transition through June. Amanpour, whose first major assignment was covering the first Gulf War, went on to report from conflicts in Bosnia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iran over a career spanning more than three decades.
The announcement comes as Skydance, formerly Paramount Skydance, completed its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this month, bringing CNN and CBS News under the same corporate roof.
CNN chief Mark Thompson and CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss will keep their roles, with both reporting to David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz. The deal has drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have criticized Ellison for allegedly tailoring news coverage at CBS News to favor President Donald Trump.
Christiane Amanpour is a British-Iranian journalist and one of the most recognizable international correspondents of the past 30 years. She first gained prominence at CNN covering the first Gulf War in 1990 from Baghdad, and went on to report from major conflict zones including Bosnia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and Iran. Known for her on-the-ground reporting and tough interviews with world leaders, she became CNN’s Chief International Anchor and hosted Amanpour, the network’s flagship global affairs interview program. She also anchored a weekly edition of the show on PBS, making her a rare dual presence on both cable and public television in the U.S.
Her career has been defined by a focus on war, diplomacy, and human rights, with a reporting style that blends eyewitness coverage with in-depth interviews. Over the decades she has interviewed presidents, prime ministers, and activists across five continents, and has won multiple awards including several News & Documentary Emmys and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation. In late 2025 it was announced she would step down from her daily CNN and PBS shows at year’s end, while continuing a weekly CNN program into 2026.