CNN anchor Rahel Solomon startled audiences and colleagues on the morning of Monday, March 23, 2026, when she announced on live television that she will be leaving the network, marking an unforeseen departure for one of the cable outlet’s up-and-coming personalities.
“I have decided that this will be my last week at CNN,” Solomon, 37, told viewers at the end of her broadcast, adding that next Friday, March 27, would be her final show. “More to come on what’s next for me, but I’m really excited about this next chapter.”
Solomon is the host of “Early Start” from 5 to 6 a.m. and also appears on CNN Newsroom for CNN International and CNN Max. The network has confirmed her departure, with a CNN spokesperson telling The Daily Beast, “We are grateful to Rahel for all her contributions to CNN over the past four years and are supportive of her decision.”
The departure comes just over a year after Solomon assumed the “Early Start” slot when CNN announced significant schedule changes in January 2025. The show, which began as “5 Things with Rahel Solomon,” debuted on March 10, 2025. As part of a broader morning overhaul, the network restored the “Early Start” title and moved Audie Cornish to “CNN This Morning” from 6 to 7 a.m.
Solomon had only come back from a six-month maternity break in December 2025 after she and her husband, Philadelphia lawyer Marcel S. Pratt, welcomed a daughter. Her decision to exit follows about three months after resuming her anchoring duties.
Her announcement arrives amid turmoil at CNN. Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery agreed in February 2026 to be bought by Paramount Skydance for roughly $111 billion, ending a competitive bidding round that saw Netflix pull back from an $83 billion bid. The acquisition, led by David Ellison — who has said CNN will run independently and claimed he wants to be “in the truth business” — has raised employee anxieties about the network’s direction, especially after Paramount’s editorial moves at CBS News following Bari Weiss’s appointment as editor-in-chief.
Solomon’s profile at CNN grew quickly after she joined full-time in April 2022 as a CNN International correspondent covering global business. She covered major developments such as the 2023 U.S. banking turmoil, the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and UBS’s emergency takeover of Credit Suisse. Earlier in her career, she worked as a general assignment reporter at CNBC on programs like “Halftime Report” and “Power Lunch” and served as a morning anchor at KYW-TV (CBS-3) in Philadelphia from 2017 to 2019.
Her path into journalism wasn’t straightforward. Solomon graduated from St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y., in 2010 with a bachelor’s in finance and later earned a master’s from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She had initially planned to work in banking before moving into broadcasting.
The Philadelphia native, born in Sudan to Ethiopian parents, came to the U.S. at age three and first lived in West Philadelphia. Raised in Delaware County, she attended Archbishop Prendergast High School. Although she has lived in places including West Virginia, Colorado, France, Spain, and Italy while studying abroad, she has retained strong connections to her hometown and became well known during her time at CBS3 Philadelphia.
While working in Philadelphia, Solomon had a viral on-air moment in 2017 when she and co-anchor Jim Donovan tried the “hot chip challenge” — a clip that continues to circulate online and showcases her on-camera personality.
Her departure adds to the uncertainty at CNN, which has struggled with declining viewership under Warner Bros. Discovery. The network’s primetime audience fell after the 2024 presidential election, though ratings improved year over year in early 2026 compared with the weak figures of 2025. In February 2026, CNN ranked fifth in total primetime viewers.
In January 2025, CNN CEO Mark Thompson announced plans to cut roughly six percent of staff — about 200 jobs — while shifting resources toward digital initiatives, including a new paid streaming product. Warner Bros. Discovery provided $70 million to support the digital pivot. The restructuring also included programming moves: Jake Tapper moved to a two-hour 5–7 p.m. slot, Kasie Hunt began a 4 p.m. show called “The Arena with Kasie Hunt,” Wolf Blitzer was paired with Pamela Brown at 10 a.m., and some production roles were relocated from New York to Atlanta and Washington to reduce costs.
Solomon’s personal life has flourished as well. She married Pratt on July 13, 2024, in a two-day celebration at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that honored her Ethiopian heritage and her husband’s ties to Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. The couple chose the landmark for its sentimental meaning — it was where they had their second date. Pratt, a West Philadelphia native, previously served as the city’s solicitor and is now a managing partner at Ballard Spahr.
CNN has not named a replacement for Solomon on “Early Start.” The simulcast on CNN International has been covering the war in Iran, with Abu Dhabi-based anchor Becky Anderson frequently joining the broadcast.