Charles Barkley’s CNN show with Gayle King CANCELED after 6 months

Charles Barkley wanted to work in mainstream media before retiring from broadcasting completely.

Charles Barkley’s CNN show with Gayle King CANCELED after 6 months

Charles Barkley and Gayle King's show 'King Charles' has been canceled by CNN after 6 months

When Charles Barkley joined Gayle King on CNN for the show ‘King Charles’, it was a move to mainstream media that the basketball legend wanted to do for a long time. Since debuting, the show was initially praised for its efforts in bringing a different view to viewers. However, the show has now been axed 6 months into its run.

King Charles debuted on CNN in November with a view to run it into the spring of this year. After a good first episode, viewership has seen a decline over the last 6 months. The New York Post reported that Barkley’s inability to do more than one episode a week led to the decline in consistent viewers. The show lagged behind competitor talk shows in the same time slot by a huge margin. So much so that CNN took the decision to cancel the show.

Charles Barkley joined long time talk show host Gayle King to create this epic crossover. However, Barkley’s schedule is so demanding that he could only shoot one episode a week. Hence, follow up stories would be too far out of viewers’ interests by the time the episode aired.

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The unavailability of Barkley dampened the initial hype, even though viewers were eager to listen to the differing views of someone who was not afraid to speak his mind. Barkley and Gayle will continue their regular jobs of Inside the NBA on TNT and CBS Mornings, respectively.

Charles Barkley and a legendary career in broadcasting

Since retiring from the NBA in the year 2000, Charles Barkley has been with Turner Network Television. His tenure with the team of ‘Inside the NBA’ has unlocked a new level of fan following. Open and honest opinions and throwing his quick-witted humor in spades has made his fan following bigger than what he had during his NBA career.

18 Emmy Awards later, Barkley recently signed a 10-year $200 million contract extension. However, he has suggested that he might not be able to complete the tenure of the contract if his health does not keep up. Which is why he wanted to explore mainstream media in his last years on television.

Sadly, it did not turn out the way he expected. King Charles might be canceled, but basketball fans will still be able to see him talking about their favorite sport.

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