Campbell Brown steps down as anchor of eponymous CNN cable news show due to low ratings

Anchors aren't known for admitting their shortcomings but Campbell Brown is accepting defeat.
The eponymous host of CNN's "Campbell Brown" has stepped down from the "toughest timeslot in cable news" due to low ratings.

"Simply put, the ratings for my program are not where I would like them to be," Brown said in a statement released Tuesday. "It is largely for this reason that I am stepping down as anchor of CNN’s 'Campbell Brown.’ "

Brown added that she had been ruminating over the move "for some time" and that she felt the urge to reveal the truth behind her departure.

"I have never had much tolerance for others’ spin, so I can’t imagine trying to stomach my own," she said. "The simple fact is that not enough people want to watch my program, and I owe it to myself and to CNN to get out of the way so that CNN can try something else."

Brown's news program aired at 8 p.m. on CNN opposite Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor," HLN's "Nancy Grace" and MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” While Brown  praised the "incredible talents" of her 8 p.m. cable news competitors, she also revealed she didn't feel she was in the same league as these pundits.

"Shedding my own journalistic skin to try to inhabit the kind of persona that might co-exist in that line up is simply impossible for me," she said. "It is not who I am or who I want to be; nor is it who CNN asked me to be at any point."

CNN President Jon Klein revealed in a statement that the network would be announcing programming plans in the next few weeks.

According to The Washington Examiner, Eliot Spitzer is being considered as host of a new debate show like "Crossfire." But the New York Gov. has denied these claims.

Meanwhile, Brown says she plans to help CNN through the transition.

Prior to working with CNN, Brown had been a correspondent on "NBC Nightly News" and a co-anchor on the network's "Weekend Today."

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