Chris Licht Biography

Christ Licht is an American television executive and producer, most notably known as chairman and CEO of CNN from May 2022 to June 2023. Born in Switzerland, Licht was raised in Newtown, Connecticut, and earned a broadcasting and political science degree from Syracuse's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. 

He began his career at KNBC in Los Angeles and covered the O.J. Simpson trial. Licht co-created and was the original executive producer of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," earning critical acclaim for its newsmaker interviews. He also executive-produced "Scarborough Country" and later served as vice president of programming at CBS News, where he relaunched "CBS This Morning" from 2011 to 2016, winning a Peabody Award and three Emmys. From 2016 to 2022, he was showrunner and executive producer of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

At CNN, Licht aimed to shift the network toward a less politically charged tone, which led to controversial programming decisions. In 2010, he suffered a near-fatal cerebral hemorrhage while driving in Washington, D.C. He later wrote a book about the resulting experience, “What I Learned When I Almost Died: How a Maniac TV Producer Put Down His BlackBerry and Started to Live His Life,” published in 2011. He currently lives in Manhattan with his family. 

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