Twitter Lashes Out At Bill Maher Following New CNN Segment Announcement

CNN recently suffered its worst ratings week in nine years, and now the network is looking to shake things up — but not everybody is happy about the talent they're looking to bring on board. While the cable news behemoth is home to journalists Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon — along with popular pundits like Dana Bash and Jim Acosta – Semafor reported that the network was looking to appeal to its dwindling audience with a new type of personality: That of the comedic variety.

After Chris Light joined the struggling network in 2022, his initial plan was to steer the cable giant toward a more centrist approach to delivering the news. According to CNBC, his idea was to cut down on the amount of political coverage aired on the network altogether. However, he apparently had something of an about-face and set out to find a comedian that dabbled in politics. "They're looking for their version of John Oliver," an insider told Semafor. Instead, he got the entertaining — though often brash — host of "Real Time with Bill Maher." Instead of offering Maher his own show, CNN has plans to air the "Overtime" segment of his titular show on Fridays, per The Hollywood Reporter.

While the show might not be anything new, the outrage against the news network for giving Maher another platform to share his controversial views sure is.

In response to his new gig at CNN, some were quick to take aim at Bill Maher's contentious political views. "Bill Maher is obsessed with this idea that 'cancel culture is out of control,'" MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan wrote on Twitter. "Yet Maher himself just got a new CNN gig, despite saying outrageous things about Muslims, Arabs, and trans people; making crass jokes about Asians; & using the N-word on TV." In 2014, CNN actually published a piece about Maher's views on Muslims, noting that actor Ben Affleck found them abhorrent when he appeared on "Real Time." Other netizens tried their hand at comedy in response to the news, with one person snarkily tweeting, "It's about time someone gave an old, rich, white man a platform to complain about everything."

But Maher views himself as the guy who is brave enough to roast both sides of the political aisle. And if his left-leaning fans feel like he's started targeting their views more, he says it's because they've given him more material. "The oath of office I took was to comedy," he said on "Real Time." Maher also boasted, "I'm a hero at Fox these days," which appears to be true based on the number of pieces published by the outlet regarding the comedian's "cancel culture" rants.

While CNN's move has many rolling their eyes, Chris Licht might be on to something: When Maher appeared on Chris Cuomo's show in 2021, it received a significant boost in ratings.