HLN will end production at the end of this month for most major live news programs, including shows hosted by former CNN hosts Carol Costello, Ashleigh Banfield and Michaela Pereira, according to a Mediaite report published Tuesday.

The CNN sister network is also shutting down live production for programs in New York and Los Angeles and moving to Atlanta.

The decision comes as live programming at HLN has struggled to draw major viewership, finishing as the 66th most-watched channel to finish 2017 on cable behind channels such as Country Music TV and the Game Show Network.

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Taped programming, which currently rates decidedly higher for the channel, will replace the live programming that aired starting at 3 p.m. on Oct. 29, according to Mediaite.

The network's morning show, "Morning Express" hosted by Robin Meade, will be expanded to six hours beginning at 6 a.m. EDT.

"The current cable news landscape is dominated by politics," said HLN executive vice president Ken Jautz in an internal memo. "Our live news shows have not benefitted from this trend given our story mix. However, HLN’s longform programs have been performing very well."



"In today’s news environment, every network has to focus on its strengths. To ensure HLN’s growth, we will shift some of our resources from live to longform programming and produce our live shows in as streamlined a manner as possible," he continued. "The best way to do this is to centralize production of live news programming in Atlanta."



HLN was originally launched as CNN2 back in 1982 out of Atlanta before eventually becoming "Headline News Network," or HLN, one year later.