Minneapolis Native Poppy Harlow Steps Into New Role At CNN

NEW YORK City — Minneapolis native Poppy Harlow will join fellow CNN reporters Don Lemon and Kaitlan Collins in hosting a new morning news program on CNN.

The show — titled "CNN This Morning" — will replace "New Day" and will air each morning during weekdays.

Harlow, who grew up in Minneapolis and gradated from The Blake School in 2001, currently hosts CNN Newsroom. After graduating form Blake, Harlow left Minnesota to attend Columbia University, earning a bachelor's degree in political science.

She later earned a master's degree in studies of law from Yale Law School.

Harlow was hired at CNN in 2008, and has gone on to interview people in positions of power, from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Mark Zuckerberg.

In a promo for the new show, Harlow references her home state, saying, "I knew [Don Lemon] was a real friend when you flew to Slavinia for our wedding. And all my friends from Minnesota were like, 'Oh my God, that's Don Lemon.'"

The show is one of the first major programming change under the new leadership of Chris Licht, who took charge after former CNN President Jeff Zucker resigned in scandal.

Among Licht's priority is making the show for all Americans, not just people in the New York-Washington corridor.

The network is filming promos for the show in the home states of each host. Collins is from Alabama, Harlow from Minnesota, Lemon is from Louisiana.

"There is no stronger combination of talent than Don, Poppy and Kaitlan to deliver on our promise of a game-changing morning news program," said Licht in a news release last month.

"They are each uniquely intelligent, reliable and compelling; together they have a rare and palpable chemistry. Combined with CNN’s resources and global newsgathering capabilities, we will offer a smart, bold and refreshing way to start the day."

Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story.