Three years ago, before the collapse of CNN—before Jeff Zucker’s trauma-inducing defenestration, David Zaslav’s ruthless debt-reduction exercises, and Chris Licht’s reign of terror; before the dumbfounding programming forfeitures and precipitous ratings declines; and before Mark Thompson set out to transform the business into a digital juggernaut (any day now, Mark)—the heir apparent to take over the once-formidable cable news network was a little-known, then-42-year-old company veteran named Rebecca Kutler. At the time, the amiable and well-liked Kutler was overseeing programming for the network’s ill-fated streaming science experiment, CNN+.