Soledad O'Brien to host CNN morning show

CNN announced yesterday it is remaking its morning lineup and will bring Soledad O'Brien back as host of a "conversational ensemble" show beginning next year, The Associated Press reports.

O'Brien's program is set to air on weekdays from 7 to 9 a.m.

Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin will be hosts of a news show that will air from 5 to 7 a.m., the network said. Banfield, most recently at ABC News, played a prominent role at MSNBC a decade ago. Sambolin has worked in local news in Chicago.

CNN's "American Morning," where O'Brien worked from 2003 to 2007, has struggled competitively. Conversational shows "Fox & Friends" on Fox News Channel and "Morning Joe" on MSNBC do better in ratings and buzz, and CNN is often eclipsed by its sister channel HLN with Robin Meade in the morning.

Since former co-hosts John Roberts and Kiran Chetry left "American Morning" in the past year, the network has experimented with other approaches and anchors.

"There's a real opportunity to do a show that has more thoughtful conversations," said O'Brien, who grew up in Smithtown. She said her model is less the type of talk featured on the other cable morning shows, and more the topics that she's covered in documentaries on topics such as education and race.