CNN anchor Jim Acosta reportedly leaving embattled network after being demoted to graveyard shift

Jim Acosta, a reporter-turned anchor who spent years attempting to do battle with the Trump administration, has reportedly called it quits at CNN after being threatened with losing his timeslot. 

The anchor was reportedly left with an ultimatum as network head honcho Mark Thompson ruthlessly made cuts at CNN last week: accept a midnight timeslot or your future at the network is in question.

Acosta was set to lose his 10am show in exchange for a re-located version of Wolf Blitzer's program as part of a complete reshuffling of the fading cable giant's schedule.

Status reported Monday night that the anchor has told close allies he will call their bluff and depart just as Trump returns to the White House. 

The network has reportedly tried to sell Acosta on the idea of being on during prime time hours on the west coast but ratings were likely to take a nosedive.

While Acosta's show was far from the network's biggest problem - only reruns of Bill Maher's HBO show and CNN's biggest stars like Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper and Abby Philip did better than his 10am show - it could be seen as Thompson looking to take the network away from its liberal drift in recent years. 

The timing of the demotion – three days after Trump's inauguration – raised suspicions that CNN was trying to curry favor with the incoming president by sending his biggest antagonist to the 'Siberia of television news'.

Formerly the network's chief White House correspondent, Acosta achieved infamy after agitating Trump, leading to some of the president's most memorable putdowns.

'You are a rude, terrible, nasty person,' the president clapped back at his botherer-In-chief in an especially testy 2018 exchange. 

Acosta's visibility soared during Trump's first term when his combative questioning riled the President and memorably provoked him into labelling CNN 'fake news.'

The then-chief White House correspondent had his press credentials revoked in November 2018 when he was accused of 'putting his hands on' a young intern who tried to yank the mic from him.

'CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them,' Trump hissed at his most-loathed member of the press pool.

Conservatives will likely shed no tears over his leaving the airways, as Charlie Kirk wrote after hearing of Acosta leaving.

'The media landscape is unrecognizable from the beginning of Trump’s first term in 2017, and that’s a very good thing for America,' Kirk wrote.  

DailyMail.com has reached out to CNN for comment. 

Acosta's proposed banishment to CNN's graveyard midnight slot delighted many of his colleagues who have long been fed up with his grandstanding ways.  

Few are hiding their glee that President Donald Trump's botherer-in-chief has been moved from a plum morning slot to a time when viewing figures plummet even further.

'Jim is one of the least-liked and most eye-rolled of all the talent at CNN. And this has been a longstanding status,' said one network insider. 

'He's insufferable, an egomaniac. If he can make himself part of the story, he will.' 

Another added: 'His jealousy is even visibly thicker than his makeup and hardened hair gel.' 

'Everyone knows he's the guy who constantly sparred with Trump and I imagine that's not the look that the network is going for right now,' another longtime ex-staffer told DailyMail.com.

On Thursday, CNN announced 200 layoffs and a series of major changes, one of which was to boot Acosta from his mid-morning slot and give him a show starting at midnight.

He later parlayed Trump's animosity into a plum morning hosting gig and a bestselling book, The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America. 

But behind the scenes, his rise from obscurity rankled colleagues, several of whom told DailyMail.com they grew tired of Acosta's 'resistance' schtick.

'Before Trump came along, Jim was a run-of-the mill on-air talent. But then came his epiphany,' dished our insider.

'He realized that if he needled Trump, people would applaud him on Twitter and online. Jim simply could not resist this added limelight.'

The day Trump – briefly – revoked his credentials for White House coverage was the absolute best day of Jim's life.

'He was famous now. He was glowing, visibly thrilled and smiling. People knew who he was. He was part of the headlines.

'And so, he began to make this his entire personality. The guy was insufferable before, but now it's times-ten. He clearly felt that he was seen as some kind of hero.'

As Acosta's profile soared he became fiercely territorial about rival reporters encroaching on his White House beat, according to our source.

'He would seethe – positively roil – when male colleagues like Jake Tapper or Jim Sciutto would 'scoop' him on anything White House or presidential-related,' the insider revealed.

'He would "bigfoot" a colleague at any chance he could possibly get.

'Sometimes he would even drive all the way back to the White House in a hurry and try to weasel himself on air if he found out that something interesting was happening on short notice.'

Acosta also took a 'frantic' interest in the hotels and flights his colleagues were booking, trying to gauge whether CNN was splashing out more on his bigger-name counterparts.

If he learned that a rival was bedding down in a plush suite it could send the swarthy Cuban-American star – born Abilio James Acosta – into a tailspin, according to our source.

‘Crews would laugh about this behind his back, saying his jealousy is even visibly thicker than his makeup and hardened hair gel.’

Adding fuel to his critics, Acosta used a TV segment last week to hold aloft a placard reading: 'I march for Jim Acosta and a free press.'

He had kept it for eight years after a supporter named Nora supposedly presented it to him during an anti-Trump march.

'Journalists exist to seek the truth, to tell people stories, to lift up voices that may not be heard otherwise,' Acosta opined.

'To shine a light on injustice and hold the powerful accountable, we are not the enemy of the people, we are the defender of the people.'

The segment was lampooned on social media but not all of Acosta's colleagues were quick to stick the boot in, one telling DailyMail.com he was a 'diligent' reporter 'who worked his a** and deserves his success'.

Likewise, a counterpart working the White House floor for a rival outlet, added: 'I really liked him. One of the few TV people who seemed normal.'

A longtime female ex-colleague said Acosta, a dad-of-three who reportedly split from his ex-wife Sharon Mobley Stow around 2017, was 'always nice' to her.

She elaborated: 'It was known that Jim likes the ladies – find me a male reporter with a healthy ego who wasn't over-confident in that regard – but nothing ever HR level inappropriate.

'Honestly, it just made me roll my eyes. And I wasn't alone in that eye roll.'

Several journalists told us they were alarmed by reports of Mark Thompson, a veteran British media exec who took the reins at CNN in 2023, burying a prominent journalist to 'throw a bone to Trump.'

The revelation came from former CNN media correspondent Oliver Darcy who pointed out in his Status newsletter that ratings for Acosta's weekday 10am show are some of the flagging cable network's highest.

Acosta was assured the move was to accommodate switching Wolf Blitzer to a morning slot, not because of his editorial stance, according to Darcy's reporting.

But an unnamed executive told Darcy: 'Midnight is not a serious offer when his ratings are among the best on the network.'

The channel has meanwhile been giving noticeably greater airtime to its few Conservative voices in recent months, with Trump defender Scott Jennings, 47, emerging as a star.

'It's a programming decision which they're entitled to make. They went to him [Acosta] with a proposal to put him on at midnight which of course would give anyone pause,' said a former staffer who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at CNN.

'The question remains, is the move really about currying favor with the White House?

'One thing is for certain; the presidency loves nothing more than to watch us eat our own. They just f*****g love that.'

Acosta’s midnight Eastern move would align him with more palatable 9 to 11pm on the west coast and see his show broadcast at 5am in London and 6am across much of continental Europe, where CNN International enjoys a substantial audience.

A spokeswoman for the network declined to comment.