By Helen Coster

(Reuters) -CNN CEO Chris Licht will be leaving the media company, news website Puck reported on Wednesday.

CNN did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Licht, a former CBS executive producer who replaced Jeff Zucker at CNN, has been under pressure in the days following a damning report in the Atlantic magazine.

Among other criticism, he has taken heat for the network's decision to broadcast a May 10 town hall with former Republican President Donald Trump, during which Trump repeated falsehoods about his 2020 election loss, said that if elected he would pardon many supporters convicted of taking part in a Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and called CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins a "nasty person."

CNN's ratings have been sagging, even as the company attempts to get more Republican viewers.

(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Nick Zieminski)