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When the Leavy Breaks

Once a member of Zaz’s WBD brain trust, David Leavy was dispatched to right the mid-Licht ship at CNN, staying on as C.O.O. for nearly two years. Now, he’s taking on an unspecified role that almost certainly doesn’t exist.

David Leavy
To get the awkward part out of the way, Leavy’s future role is unspecified because it does not yet exist, and may never exist. Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
May 28, 2025

On Wednesday, CNN chief executive Mark Thompson announced that David Leavy, his chief operating officer, would be leaving the network and returning to an unspecified role at the parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. In the grand scheme of CNN’s trajectory—the impending spinoff, the inevitable shrinkage, etcetera—the news was only a mildly notable bookend to a remarkably dispiriting few years. For insiders, however, it also highlighted some of the broader curiosities about WBD’s business.