Update: An updated version of this article is now online.

Stunning the television world, the CNN host Larry King announced Tuesday evening that he would end his talk show, “Larry King Live,” this fall.

The CNN/U.S. president Jonathan Klein said in an e-mail message to the staff that Mr. King, 76, who has been beset by falling ratings, was ending the show “on his own terms.”

Mr. King wrote in a blog post on CNN.com, “I talked to the guys here at CNN and I told them I would like to end Larry King Live, the nightly show, this fall and CNN has graciously accepted, giving me more time for my wife and I to get to the kids’ little league games.”

Mr. King said he would remain at CNN in a limited capacity, hosting several special “Larry King Live” shows each year.

“I’m incredibly proud that we recently made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest running show with the same host in the same time slot,” Mr. King wrote. “With this chapter closing I’m looking forward to the future and what my next chapter will bring, but for now it’s time to hang up my nightly suspenders.”

Mr. King’s contract was set to expire in June 2011.

In his e-mail message to staffers, Mr. Klein said Mr. King had “decided to take a step back from the nightly grind.”

“He is not leaving CNN,” Mr. Klein continued. “Larry is a beloved member of the CNN family and he will continue to contribute to our air with periodic specials.”

Mr. Klein said the network would “celebrate tenure in proper fashion over the coming months,” without giving specifics.

CNN did not immediately name a successor to Mr. King and his vaunted 9 p.m. time slot. Mr. King has said in the past that his first choice for a successor is the entertainer Ryan Seacrest.

The New York Times reported last month that there was a growing feeling at the company that a succession plan should be put in place, but there is no evidence that CNN is actually preparing such a plan.

“They have this iconic personality who is going to disappear in the not-too-distant future, and they don’t have any clue what they’re going to do,” one senior employee said last month, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he did not have permission from the channel to speak publicly.

Mr. King, a legend in the television business, was a radio host before he made his debut on CNN in 1985. Ever since, his show has served up a mixture of A-list interviews, celebrity chit-chats and debates. In 1993, when Mr. King paired Al Gore and Ross Perot for a debate about Nafta, he set a cable news ratings record that still hasn’t been topped to this day, 16.3 million viewers.

But in recent years “Larry King Live” has lost a sizable amount of its audience, mirroring CNN as a whole, which has struggled to figure out how to compete in a sharply partisan cable news environment.

In the second quarter of 2010, Mr. King’s show averaged 674,000 viewers, its lowest ratings ever, according to ratings from The Nielsen Company. In the 25- to 54-year-old demographic, it averaged 176,000, well behind the most popular cable news show at 9 p.m., “Hannity” on Fox News, and the runner-up, “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC.