Chris Licht

Mr. Licht is currently the executive producer of “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and is poised to succeed Jeff Zucker, the CNN president whose nine-year tenure abruptly ended this month when he resigned over an undisclosed romantic relationship with a colleague. Mr. Licht and David Zaslav, the chief executive of Discovery, are professional and social friends who have known each other for more than a decade. Mr. Licht is a co-creator of “Morning Joe,” the hugely successful MSNBC franchise that still dominates that network’s morning lineup. He jumped to CBS News in 2011, where he was widely credited with turning around the fortunes of “CBS This Morning." In 2016, CBS tapped Mr. Licht to take over “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Mr. Licht, a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse communications school at Syracuse University. His wife, Jenny Blanco, worked at CNN for several years as a producer for the anchor Anderson Cooper and then as a director of talent recruiting and development. A formal announcement is expected as soon.