Kathleen Parker, the co-host of "Parker Spitzer," CNN's four-month-old, ratings-challenged primetime show, has been dropped from the program, CNN announced on Friday. Eliot Spitzer, her co-host, will remain, and beginning on Monday the show will be called "In the Arena." 
 
 "We have decided to take the show in a new direction," Ken Jautz, CNN's president, wrote in a memo to staffers Friday. "We will be adopting an ensemble format with several newsmakers, guests and contributors joining Eliot Spitzer each night." 
 
 E.D. Hill and Will Cain will join the program, Jautz announced, adding that Parker — who says she wants to refocus on her syndicated column — "would continue to appear on CNN occasionally." 
 
 The move had been rumored — both inside and outside of CNN — for some time now. Spitzer hosted the show solo earlier this month while Parker was reportedly sick, and saw a 68 percent jump in 25-54-year-old viewers. And according to the New York Post, Spitzer had been telling friends Parker's exit was imminent. 
 
 The 8 p.m. show was announced last fall as a replacement for Campbell Brown, with former CNN president Jon Klein's seal of approval. The roundtable format — with Spitzer, the former New York State governor and Parker, the conservative columnist — marked a shift to opinion-based programming for CNN, which had shunned the ideological fare favored by Fox News and MSNBC. 
 
 But Klein — who had long resisted the rising tide of “partisan” news — was bounced in September, with Jautz replacing him shortly before "Parker Spitzer's" October debut. 
 
 The new program, Jautz said, will "provide context and analysis through balanced and thoughtful discussions and interviews with a wide range of guests and newsmakers who cumulatively represent various points of view." 
 
 The ratings for "Parker Spitzer" simply never materialized. In its first week on the air, "Parker Spitzer," had an average audience of just 465,500 viewers for its debut week; disgraced former CNN host Rick Sanchez's "Rick's List" averaged 468,000 total viewers during its brief run in the same time slot. (It even lagged behind HLN's Nancy Grace, who averaged 550,000 total viewers during the "Parker Spitzer's" first week.) 
 
 That "Parker Spitzer" struggled out of the gate was magnified by Piers Morgan's relatively strong debut last month as the primetime replacement for cable legend Larry King. 
 
 Morgan's first show drew 2.1 million viewers, good enough to increase the news channel's prime-time performance by over 200 percent from its fourth-quarter average, but not good enough to overcome Fox News rival Sean Hannity, who averaged nearly 2.4 million viewers in an interview with Sarah Palin. 
 
 According to the newsroom source, there may be more changes on the way. "Parker Spitzer's" lead-in at 7 p.m., "John King, USA," has struggled in the ratings, as well. 
 
 Here's the memo from Jautz to CNN's staff, as well as statements from Parker and Spitzer: 
 
 I want to share with you some news today regarding our 8pm show. Kathleen Parker has decided to leave the program to focus on her writing, and we have decided to take the show in a new direction. We will be adopting an ensemble format with several newsmakers, guests and contributors joining Eliot Spitzer each night. The new program will be called, "In the Arena," beginning Monday. E.D. Hill and Will Cain will join the program as well others within and outside the CNN family. 
 
 We have been pleased with how the 8pm hour has become a centerpiece of substantive, policy-oriented conversation, and we are looking forward to building on that with this new format. Simply put, the new program will look beyond the headlines to analyze and discuss the most important stories of the day. The program will provide context and analysis through balanced and thoughtful discussions and interviews with a wide range of guests and newsmakers who cumulatively represent various points of view. 
 
 Kathleen will continue to appear on CNN occasionally to provide her insights and commentary. We thank Kathleen for her hard work and all that she has done to help us launch our new 8pm program. We respect her as a colleague and appreciate her perspective and contributions. 
 
 Statement from Kathleen Parker: 
 
 After bringing viewers a new 8pm show on CNN, I have decided to return to a schedule that will allow me to focus more on my syndicated newspaper column and other writings. While I am extremely proud of the show we created, and the subject matter and level of discourse Parker Spitzer promoted every night, it was a difficult decision to scale back my column a few months ago and, with the show going in a new direction, it is a good time to move on. I want to thank the viewers who have been so kind with their comments and support. I will continue to appear to contribute and analyze occasionally on CNN and look forward to continuing my relationship with CNN and the many talented individuals I have worked with here. 
 
 Statement from Eliot Spitzer: 
 
 I wish Kathleen all the best in continuing on with her spectacular career. It has been a joy working with her as a teammate, and I continue to be a huge fan of the wisdom that jumps from her written work and the wit, charm and insight she brings to all that she does. ||||| CNN is reformatting “Parker Spitzer” as an ensemble program with Eliot Spitzer — and without Kathleen Parker, who has been his co-host for the last four months. 
 
 Effective Monday, the program will be renamed “In the Arena.” Several people will join Mr. Spitzer in the arena at 8 p.m. each night, including E. D. Hill and Will Cain and “others within and outside the CNN family,” the executive in charge of CNN/U.S., Ken Jautz, said in a memorandum on Friday afternoon. 
 
 Ms. Hill, a former Fox News anchor, and Mr. Cain, a former columnist for National Review, are both conservative. Ms. Hill was the subject of attention in mid-2008 when she asked on Fox if a gesture by Senator Barack Obama, then a presidential candidate, had been a “terrorist fist jab.” 
 
 The new plan for the 8 p.m. hour on CNN, a unit of Time Warner, reflects the channel’s continued struggle to increase its audience share. Almost since the day it started in October, “Parker Spitzer” was mired by backstage clashes and disagreements, and was never able to generate ratings traction. 
 
 Ms. Parker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post, will continue to appear on CNN occasionally, a CNN spokeswoman said. Ms. Parker did not respond to a request for comment on Friday, but in a statement provided by CNN, she said, “I have decided to return to a schedule that will allow me to focus more on my syndicated newspaper column and other writings.” 
 
 Last fall, she reduced her column schedule to once a week from twice a week. She continued in the statement, “While I am extremely proud of the show we created, and the subject matter and level of discourse ‘Parker Spitzer’ promoted every night, it was a difficult decision to scale back my column a few months ago and, with the show going in a new direction, it is a good time to move on.” 
 
 The new direction will try to feature many points of view, Mr. Jautz indicated in his message on Friday. Through a spokeswoman, he declined an interview request. 
 
 Privately, CNN executives emphasized that they were not turning the 8 p.m. hour into “The Eliot Spitzer Show.” But it is almost certain that the reformatted and renamed program will further elevate Mr. Spitzer, the former New York governor who resigned in 2008 after being caught up in a prostitution scandal. 
 
 Mr. Spitzer said in a statement that he wished Ms. Parker “all the best in continuing on with her spectacular career,” and added, “It has been a joy working with her as a teammate.” In her statement, she did not mention him. 
 
 “Parker Spitzer” was conceived last fall by a CNN executive, Jonathan Klein, who was dismissed two weeks before it had its premiere. The show was a hot topic in media and political circles because it represented both Mr. Spitzer’s return to the public spotlight and CNN’s attempt to bring liberal and conservative political talk to prime time. 
 
 Almost immediately, television critics noted that Mr. Spitzer seemed to overpower Ms. Parker on the show, and some recommended that he have the time slot to himself. Ms. Parker acknowledged some tension with Mr. Spitzer in December, and the animus between them never faded, according to staff members at CNN; if anything, it intensified as media reports about the show’s problems piled up. The staff members, who insisted on anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak, said the reformatting had been under consideration for several weeks. 
 
 Both the Fox News Channel and MSNBC tower over CNN at 8 p.m., as they have for several years. In January, “Parker Spitzer” averaged only 125,000 viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, the demographic favored by cable news advertisers. In February to date, the hour has averaged 189,000 viewers in that demographic, a rise that has been attributed to the channel’s coverage of the uprisings in the Middle East. 
 
 CNN’s new name for the hour, “In the Arena,” expands on the name of a debate segment within “Parker Spitzer.” The notion of an ensemble talk show immediately conjured up comparisons to “Crossfire,” the long-running debate show that CNN canceled in 2005, and “The View,” the popular daytime talk show on ABC. 
 
 Currently there is nothing like it in prime time on cable news.
– Parker Spitzer is no more. After weeks of rumors, CNN announced today that Kathleen Parker is leaving the 8pm show she co-hosted with Eliot Spitzer, reports the Wrap. The former governor will remain, and show will be renamed The Arena starting Monday. Joining Spitzer will be E.D. Hill and Will Cain, notes the New York Times' Media Decoder blog. The show had been plagued by lackluster ratings and reports of friction between the hosts since its inception last fall. The CNN statement from Parker, a Pulitzer-winning columnist with the Washington Post: "I have decided to return to a schedule that will allow me to focus more on my syndicated newspaper column and other writings."