Jemele Hill and Cari Champion joining CNN+

Former ESPN hosts Jemele Hill and Cari Champion are joining CNN to host a show on its streaming service. 

The two will co-host a show called “Cari & Jemele: Speak.Easy,” the network announced on Thursday. The pair will use the show to highlight “the biggest stories in sports, entertainment, politics, and culture, they’ll tell you how they see it,” the network said. 

“I believe the old adage is that if you work with one of your best friends, then you’ll never work a day in your life. While I made that up, there’s a certain magic that happens when Cari and I collaborate together,” Hill said in a statement. “The CNN family is a perfect partner for us because they understand our chemistry and appreciate that our boldness is our strength.”

Both Champion and Hill spent a number of years at ESPN, and have since broken off from the sports media giant to work on podcasts and other subscriber-based outlets. Hill is a writer at The Undefeated.  

Hill was suspended from ESPN in 2017 for statements she posted to social media, including one calling former President Trump a “white supremacist.”

Last year, she slammed Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) after he said he was opposed to a voting rights bill being pushed by Democrats and the idea of nixing the legislative filibuster. 

“Record number of black voters show up to save this democracy, only for white supremacy to be upheld by a cowardly, power-hungry white dude,” Hill said in a tweet, calling Manchin “a clown.” 

CNN has spent the last several months recruiting top journalism talent from around the country as it prepares to launch its streaming service, called CNN+, hiring big names like Chris Wallace, Kasie Hunt and Audie Cornish.

This week, it announced it had hired conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) as contributors. 

CNN was roiled last week with news of Jeff Zucker’s resignation as the network’s president, which came along with revelations of a romantic relationship with another senior executive that he did not disclose to the company. 

CNN+ is slated to launch in April.