Why You Don't Hear About Lisa Ling Anymore

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Up until recently, Lisa Ling had been a mainstay of our screens for the best part of a quarter-century. Following a three-year stint on the panel of daytime institution "The View" in 1999, the University of Southern California alum went on to host shows for National Geographic Explorer, work on both "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and the chat show queen's OWN network including the Emmy-winning "Our America with Lisa Ling," and become a regular face on CNN thanks to another eponymous long-running show, "This Is Life with Lisa Ling."

But recently, the popular Sacramento-born journalist appears to have taken something of a backseat. So, what exactly has she been up to since the turn of the decade? From raising kids and caring for elderly parents to network transitions and behind-the-scenes roles, here's a look at why you might not have seen the once-ubiquitous Ling on screen as much lately.

In 2022, CNN announced that it was being forced to make cuts to its programming due to budgetary restrictions. And perhaps surprisingly, the longest-running vehicle under its non-fiction banner, "Original Series," was a casualty.

After informing and entertaining audiences for nine seasons, "This Is Life with Lisa Ling" was made surplus to requirements. The documentary series, a follow-up to the host's OWN show "Our America with Lisa Ling," prided itself on exploring parts of the country typically ignored by the mainstream, whether the Mormon community's drug use in Utah, the concept of sugaring, or the world of gay rodeos.

Ling told the Los Angeles Times (via AOL) that she was disappointed to bow out so close to such a milestone: "I was hoping to get to 10 seasons, but we fell short of that. I would like to do many, many more seasons ... In some ways, we've cut ourselves off from really getting to know people who might be different or think differently than we do."

If you're a regular CNN viewer wondering why Lisa Ling is no longer on your screens, well, she's now informing the nation over on CBS. Yes, in 2023, just six months after her long-running series "This Is Life with Lisa Ling" was canceled, the University of Southern California alum decided to jump ship.

"I can't think of a better home for my style of reporting than CBS News given its tradition of exceptional news gathering and thoughtful storytelling," Ling revealed in a statement (via Variety). "I'm honored to be working with this venerable organization to tell the stories of people behind the headlines whose voices need to be heard."

And CBS co-president Neeraj Khemlani seemed even more excited about Ling's transfer. "If you look at her work over the years, she is really excellent at embedding with communities. You can only do that if you are afforded time and resources that fits with the kind of storytelling that we do." The journalist has since become a regular contributor to programs such as "CBS News Sunday Morning."

While Lisa Ling is a regular poster on Instagram, where she describes herself as a "Mama Bear, Storyteller, Lover of sunsets and 80's music," the journalist isn't a particularly big fan of social media, in general. That perhaps explains why she hasn't shared anything on Twitter since 2022 and has so far avoided the temptation to join TikTok altogether.

In fact, Ling is so wary about the dangers of social media, particularly on today's youth, that she's become an advisory council member for On Our Sleeves, a national initiative designed to help both kids and their parents deal with the negative impact such platforms can have on mental health.

In an interview with Healthline, Ling explained why she felt compelled to align herself with the movement: "We are bombarded by these feelings that we have difficulty identifying and add to that now these devices, which are arguably akin to drugs because of the addictive nature of what is available on these devices and through social media and how much control these algorithms have over our minds that it's just become such an important issue for me to speak out on."

In 2013, Lisa Ling and her radiation oncologist husband, Paul Song, became proud first-time parents with the arrival of daughter Jett, and three years later in 2016, welcomed another girl into the world, Ray. And while the CBS contributor has always expressed her pride at being a mother — she wrote a personal essay on the subject just eight weeks after first giving birth — she's also acknowledged how difficult it can be to balance her personal and professional lives.

"I think mothers are really tired right now," she told Chief in 2022, nearly a decade into parenthood. "We are carrying so much on our shoulders, whether it's in our places of work or at home. Some of us have really, really great and helpful partners, but still, it's in our DNA. There's a reason why they call it a maternal instinct — even if you don't have children, you have that."

Ling, who in 2016 fronted a documentary on American pregnancies titled "This is Birth," went on to say she now realizes that having the perfect family life and perfect career is impossible to achieve. "I think that we need to stop putting pressure on our own selves to solicit those kinds of reactions — for ourselves but also for our fellow sisters who are just trying to keep things afloat."

In 2022, Lisa Ling excitedly announced the launch of a new show, which proved to be something of a departure from her usual investigative journalism. Indeed, instead of shining the spotlight on the oft-hidden parts of American society, the Californian decided to shift her focus toward the oft-hidden parts of Asian American cuisine.

From Vietnamese in Orange County to Bangladeshi in New York, and Chinese in Sacramento, "Take Out with Lisa Ling" delved deep into both the foods on the table and how they actually made it there. "I was shocked that HBO Max greenlit a show like this, because I just didn't think that I would ever see the day when I would front a series about the Asian American experience," the host told her then-home network CNN. "I grew up not ever thinking that anyone cared or wanted to know about it."

Unfortunately, it seemed there wasn't much interest garnered by Ling's culinary journey. While the journalist admitted she was initially hoping for at least 20 episodes to cover the entire Asian American diaspora, the series only made it to six.

In 2009, Lisa Ling and her family experienced a nightmare when her sister, Laura Ling, and reporter Euna Lee were held captive in North Korea after they were discovered filming refugees, many of whom were later sold as brides, who'd fled the country for China. They were initially sentenced to 12 years of hard labor by the government, and it was only the interference of former President Bill Clinton and his impromptu meeting with Kim Jong-il that got them pardoned.

Understandably, Lisa was left shaken by the events that unfolded, so much so that it continued to affect her career choices long after the pair were freed. While acknowledging the fact that the recklessness of her youth was far behind her during a 2020 interview at the International Women's Media Foundation, the CBS News regular said (via People), "I'm not in my 20s — I'm not that far off," before adding, "Given what happened to my sister and now that I'm a mother, I certainly think twice about a lot of the assignments that I take."

Lisa, who's experienced tragedy throughout her life, also spoke about how she's also been impacted by the general hardships of her profession: "It's been a really, really hard year for journalists. There have been a number of assassinations and killings, and the need is great to recognize the risks that journalists take and to support what they're doing."

In 2022, a full 20 years after she left the panel for good, Lisa Ling returned to "The View" for a week as a guest co-host. And although audiences were left clamoring for her to rejoin the show full-time, the journalist, who once revealed the reason why she left the show the first time around, soon made it crystal clear that it was a strictly one-time thing.

"I'm so glad I don't do it everyday," Ling remarked (via People) while appearing on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" soon after, before explaining how the setup had changed since her three-year stint. "You really have to express your opinion so vociferously on that show, and in the age of social media, you're just scrutinized so severely."

Although Ling, who's apologized to Monica Lewinsky for comments she made during her initial run on the show, admitted that she found it difficult to make herself heard, she also revealed that another panelist told her she was, in fact, being a little too loud. "During a commercial break Joy did tell me that I was talking too much," she said, referring to longtime host Joy Behar and a heated discussion about how Joe Biden should move on from his hot mic gaffe.

Lisa Ling could never be accused of gatekeeping in her industry. Indeed, ever since she landed her first major TV gig on "The View" at the turn of the century, the journalist has vowed to pave the way for other minorities, particularly women from the Asian community. And she's still fighting for the cause, too, as she told The Skimm in 2024.

"People might look at my career from the outside looking in and go, 'Wow. She's been on TV for over 30-something years,'" Ling said. "She's even had multiple shows with her name attached to the show ... But can you think of any other Asian women who've had their names attached to a show?" Although the former University of Southern California student went on to acknowledge the likes of MSNBC's Alex Wagner and "Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi, she was also keen to point out that these are the exceptions to the rule.

Ling then recalled some wise words from "Sound of Metal" star Riz Ahmed about how being the exception is no longer good enough. "If you're the exception, it means you're complicit with the status quo," she added. "And so it's important for me and it's vital for me to try and raise awareness about this. And to try to encourage my fellow Asian American women to advocate for themselves, for each other, and other women as well."

Although Lisa Ling might not be on our screens as much lately, that doesn't mean she's been sitting at home twiddling her thumbs. The former CNN regular has been busy behind the scenes working on several projects as a producer.

In 2019, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Ling and Dan Ratner were helping to bring a new show to HBO Max about three major life milestones. "We are living in a deeply polarized world and I am elated for the opportunity to bring us closer to one another through stories about the most defining moments in people's lives: their births, weddings and funerals," she revealed at the time about a project which sadly appears to have since stalled.

While "Birth, Wedding, Funeral" didn't make it to the finish line, several other shows guided by Ling did. In 2024, she served as executive producer on "Home Court," a biopic about the career of basketball prodigy Ashley Chea. And two years earlier, she took on the same role for "Blurring the Color Line," a look at how the Chinese community was affected during the era of segregation.

In 2024, Lisa Ling hosted a CBS special on America's caregiving crisis, which explored the sandwich generation — those with no option but to look after both their children and their elderly parents simultaneously. And it's a subject the journalist knows all about.

Indeed, alongside raising their two kids, Jett and Ray, Ling and her husband, Paul Song, have also spent time caring for her father until his cognitive issues became so severe that he had to move to a special facility. Sadly, after three years, he passed away. But the TV personality is still suffering from the experience. "Because my father was ending up in the hospital so often, we expected our phone to ring in the middle of the night regularly," she told AARP. "In fact, we had some PTSD after he passed away because I was still waking up in the middle of the night sort of waiting for that call to happen."

The couple is now helping to provide care for their respective aging mothers, too. But Ling revealed to The Mash Up Americans that although their situation is difficult, she also feels honored, too: "When you think about how people in Asia live, they have multi-generational homes. And while I never thought that I would live that way because I grew up in America, it's so beautiful ... I love having so much family in my kids' lives and in my life all the time."