By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

It's official: NBC's Campbell Brown is jumping to CNN to host a nightly talk show.

Unofficially, insiders confirm that Paula Zahn, who hosts a nightly talk show on CNN, will be leaving the network shortly.

But to the frustration of reporters on a conference call yesterday, CNN President Jon Klein said he could not confirm whether Brown will be taking over Zahn's 8 p.m. time slot, or even whether Zahn is leaving, until some final details are worked out.

Brown, who has been hosting "Weekend Today" and filling in for Brian Williams on "NBC Nightly News," said, "There's no question leaving NBC was an emotional decision for me and a bittersweet one." She said that she had "a pretty comfortable role" at NBC and that in joining the cable network, "I get that what I'm doing carries risk. I made a choice. . . . I wanted the challenge."

That challenge, if Brown's new program airs at 8, will be boosting ratings in a time period that, among cable news channels, is dominated by Fox's Bill O'Reilly and in which MSNBC's Keith Olbermann often finishes second. She would be a straightforward journalist competing with programs that lean sharply to the right and left.

Klein said the show would be built around the former White House correspondent debriefing people who are "plugged in" to the day's events. "Someone of her caliber comes available only once in a while in the TV news business," he said.

CNN offered Brown a big raise and NBC matched the offer, say sources who declined to be identified discussing private negotiations. When Brown, who is pregnant, chose to leave, executives at NBC -- whose cable network competes with CNN -- insisted that she not be allowed on the air until Nov. 1.

By then, Brown, who is married to Dan Senor, a former spokesman for the U.S. civilian authority in Iraq, will be eight months pregnant. But she said she is "thinking about the presidential calendar" and hopes to be back on the air by Feb. 5, a day featuring several big-state primaries.

"As soon as I feel okay, I'm going back to work," Brown said.

Howard Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."