CNN Anchor Candy Crowley Talks About Whether Her Weight Loss Helped Clinch Her New Gig

Candy Crowley is taking over for John King on CNN’s Sunday show. “Would I have gotten the job without having lost the weight? I don’t know. That’s an X factor,” the campaign reporting veteran tells TVNewser.

Crowley has decades of experience covering elections, but has up until now been a supporting player on the CNN team. And unlike fellow prominent anchorwomen Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer, she probably won’t be asked to appear in a Harper’s Bazaar or Vogue photoshoot anytime soon (although we hope we’re wrong about that).

After the grueling 2008 campaign, she lost some weight — Gail Shister at TVNewser asks her how much, a question she won’t answer except to say she’s “down five dress sizes” — drawing speculation that it was through surgical means, which she denied. And now she has a promotion. Coincidence?

“Does the refrigerator light stay on when you close the door? We’ll never know,” Crowley tells Shister. She adds, “This company has talked about my credentials first, last and always. I got the job because I’m the best person for the job….I readily admit I’m not the most obvious pick, from a purely cosmetic point of view. I’m not going to argue that when you turn on the TV, you basically get young, blonde, thin women. This is changing.”

It’s an awkward piece to write, noting that something might have actually changed without turning Crowley’s body into some kind of specimen of media progress. That’s how you get cautious but cringe-y sentences like this one:

That is not to imply Crowley is not beautiful, because she is, Hall says. Rooney agrees.

Phew. For a minute there…

Candy Crowley: ‘I’m Not Going to Argue That When You Turn On The TV, You Basically Get Young, Blonde, Thin Women'” [TVNewser]
Related: Candy Crowley To Anchor “State Of The Union” On CNN [NYT]