Good evening, and welcome back to In The Room. Tonight, a pregame report on CNN’s highly anticipated Trump Town Hall, and a big scoop on Chris Licht’s primetime plans.

The stakes for the CNN Trump Town Hall, tonight at 8 p.m. ET, are obviously high. Trump is risking a hard-hitting interview—likely to focus on the various criminal investigations into his political activities, his liability for defaming and sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, his embrace of voter fraud conspiracy and his role in the aforementioned January 6 attack, and his controversial views on abortion and overturning Roe v. Wade—in an effort to venture out of the MAGA media shadows and back into the mainstream. Meanwhile, CNN is risking all the predictable pitfalls of Trump’s unpredictability, as well as criticism for their decision to platform an insurrectionist and sexual predator, even if he is the frontrunner, in order to reassert the network’s influence, validate its nonpartisan bona fides, and pick up some much-needed ratings.

Befitting these stakes, the media coverage leading up to tonight has been reminiscent of the pregame fanfare before a presidential debate, or even a heavyweight boxing match. Trump has been holding informal practice sessions with aides at Mar-a-Lago, discussing the various questions he might be asked. The event’s moderator, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, is bunkered in a hotel near the debate site in Manchester, New Hampshire, working with Licht and veteran CNN political producers Mark Preston and David Chalian to predict the unpredictable.

In the meantime, an army of pundits are clutching their pearls: Trump will be “more or less free to inject his lies straight into viewers’ veins,” the Times’s Michelle Cottle warns. MSNBC’s Joy Reid slammed the “open attempt by CNN to push itself to the right and make itself attractive and show its belly to MAGA and to conservatives.” Her colleague Chris Hayes said the choice to platform Trump was “very hard to defend.”

Inside CNN, of course, the stakes are highest for Licht and Collins, whose fates are now indelibly intertwined. This week, I learned that the CNN chief plans to offer Kaitlan a new contract to serve as the host of the network’s 9 p.m. primetime hour, which was once the province of Chris Cuomo (and, very briefly, Jake Tapper). The move, which could be announced as early as next week, would be the culmination of Collins’ rapid ascent from a twenty-something Trump White House correspondent to the network’s marquee star, and, at just 31 years old, the face of Licht’s New CNN.

Kaitlan’s offer is not contingent on her performance at tonight’s town hall, but, given the Trump X-factor, those 90 minutes have the potential to modify, accelerate, or stifle the arc of her career. (Just ask Megyn Kelly.) At the very least, her performance tonight will set the tone for a new Collins era at CNN, which, barring any fuck-ups, will run at least through the 2024 presidential election. For Licht, it will also mark the beginning of a formal primetime strategy, rather than the fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants mish-mash of low-rated town halls, specials and talk shows with no consistent star anchor.

Last week, I noted that Licht still has at least a few more quarters of runway to prove himself in the eyes of the parentco. Though Zaz is surely reticent to admit it, he’s too smart to be naive about Licht’s shortcomings so far as both a chief executive and a 24-7 news programmer. (Admirably or not, a defining feature of many a WBD executive is their ability to pretend like nothing is wrong.) After a year of fits and starts in primetime and mornings—which is to say, the hours that matter in this business—Licht now needs to place his bets and define CNN’s place in the broader 2024 landscape. There’s a lot riding on tonight, and there’s a lot riding on Kaitlan.