You either love him or you hate him — hardly anyone is indifferent toward Glenn Beck. So you might either love or hate that The Blaze's founder was reportedly in talks to take over struggling cable news channel HLN.
"I don't represent all Americans, I don't even come close to representing all Americans. I represent me."
According to The Wall Street Journal, CNN executives met with representatives from The Blaze about possibly overhauling HLN's content with programming already featured on the The Blaze.
The Journal says the talks "signal the ambitions of The Blaze to attain a national cable platform."
Which would be a sort of resurgence for the controversial commentator, who spent years on cable TV, first with CNN and then later with Fox News before ending his run in 2011.
And while the talks between Beck's The Blaze and CNN's sister station broke down, The Hollywood Reporter says, "Financial matters held up the deal, not ideology."
Since its conception, The Blaze has been wildly popular online among conservatives, racking up 9 million visitors per month, 300,000 paying subscribers and a deal with Dish Network.
The same cannot be said for HLN, which already has a national cable platform — but is having trouble getting people to watch it.
According to Variety, which cites numbers from Nielsen, HLN is the least watched cable news platform, falling behind Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.
Negotiations with The Blaze follow reports of similar talks between Vice Media and HLN's parent company Time Warner. Exactly how the deal would materialize on television is unclear but Vice is reportedly demanding upwards of $2.5 billion for its services.
While talks with HLN broke down, The Blaze still holds a deal with Dish Network — through which it reaches about 14 million households around the country.
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