Major changes at CNN

[BGBD]

Last edited Tue Jan 12, 2021, 10:48 AM - Edit history (1)

Jake Tapper will become Chief Washington Correspondent, meaning he will be the one to make all major political announcements such as the calling of states on air. His weekday show, The Lead, will be expanding to two hours.

Wolf Blitzer's show, The Situation Room, will move to 6:00 PM and be shortened to one hour. Blitzer will remain as the networks anchor for all breaking news and host Special Reports.

Abby Phillip will take over the Sunday edition of "Inside Politics", John King will remain as the weekday host.

Dana Bash will take over hosting duties for every other week for "State of the Union" with Tapper remaining as host or the remaining weeks. She will also have a standing quarterly primetime interview special.

Jim Acosta will be leaving the WH Press Pool and taking over as a weekend anchor and Chief Domestic Correspondent.

Pamela Brown will get and anchor position during the weekend 6-9 timeslot.

Kaitlan Collins will be the new chief White House correspondent to replace Acosta.

Clearly CNN is setting a hard focus on the news while Fox is reducing it's primetime news programming and adding an additional hour of opinion programs.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/11/media/cnn-washington-dc-anchors-correspondents/index.html

[applegrove]

1. Like Jake. He doesn't kid around. We need that.

[brush]

2. Hmmm? Blitzer's show is taking a cut. That's about right as Tapper is very good.

I wish they'd given Bianna Kielar a more prominent slot. She's top notch.

[BGBD]

4. Don't know for sure

but I'd imagine some of that is Blitzer wanting to free up some time. He's 72 years old and having a nightly 2 hours show and cover all major breaking news is a pretty big investment.

I think when Blitzer retires you will see Keilar come into Primetime. She already covers a lot of those slots when somebody is off.

[brush]

10. Good analysis.

[Blue_true]

20. I agree, Blitzer seemed ready to downshift for a while.

CNN has a very good stable of correspondents, including a lot of really talented female correspondents, now is the time to start elevating the younger talent, while allowing Wolf to ease into retirement.

[ProfessorGAC]

34. He's On 7 Days A Week, Too

I agree they're setting up a downshift for a guy closing in on full retirement.
Also agree on Brianna being likely moved to primetime.

[KatyMan]

35. We've been wondering if Wolf actually has a home

He's on so much.

[sfstaxprep]

8. Brianna Is Awesome!

She's got a pretty lousy time slot, 10:00 AM-Noon PST/1:00-3:00 PM EST.

[underpants]

14. She is a parent so the hours might really suit her

2 year old child according to Wikipedia

MSNBC would love to have Nicole Wallace somewhere in prime time but she likes her hours from what I understand and being home relatively normally for her family.

[hack89]

30. Wolf is 72 years old - I suspect he is winding down for retirement. nt

[PatSeg]

37. Blitzer was one of the reason's I quit watching CNN

Cutting him down to one hour is an improvement, but no Blitzer would be better. I never understood why he had such a prominent role at CNN. There is so much great talent out there to choose from. I can remember when Aaron Brown and Judy Woodruff were primetime anchors at CNN, much better viewing experience.

[jalan48]

3. Abby Phillips is great.

[ornotna]

17. Yes she is

These are some good changes.

[H2O Man]

18. Right.

[lagomorph777]

31. Abby Phillip

Even CNN's on-air talent frequently make the same error; it's hard not to!

[jalan48]

38. Thanks. No wonder I didn't get that proofing job.

[Earthshine2]

5. I'm good with this. I got CNN on right now.

I'll switch to MSNBC at midnight.

[Blue_true]

21. How long do you stay up watching news? nt

[Earthshine2]

22. We get these channels streamed through the net. It makes it easy to keep them on

while I go about my work and play around the house throughout the day.

It's good background noise.

For whatever reason, the CNN tvgo channel does not transmit any commercials. The screen goes blank for a few minutes. It's great!

[marmar]

6. Shortening Blitzer's show is a good thing.

[Totally Tunsie]

7. Nice to see their continued grooming of

Abby Phillip and Kaitlyn Collins. It's been exciting to watch their growth in their jobs.

Good work by all.

[mwooldri]

9. Good move IMO.

CNNs best ratings are when there's a lot of "breaking wind" err... "breaking news". Fixed News should be called Fox Opinion as there's little news on that channel. MSNBC is similarly placed.

[NoMoreRepugs]

11. Fox adding an additional hour of BULLSHIT.

[KS Toronado]

23. "an additional hour of opinion programs", yep more propaganda and bullshit

Will the "religious right" ever learn that honestly is the best policy, and quit all their lying?

[NoMoreRepugs]

28. I sincerely doubt they will.

[Maven]

12. Remember when US news channels used to cover international news?

That was nice.

[chowder66]

24. +1

[OhNo-Really]

27. I record Amanpour CNN & AM Becky Anderson

And on YouTube a firehose of news everyday
Amy Goodman Democracy Now but you have to be a fast listener 😊

And of course DU & Twitter

[lagomorph777]

32. Remember when America was normal and bad things mainly happened in other countries?

[napi21]

13. All good moves. I'vv really been impressed by Kaitlan Collins. She deserves the promo. Been

working her buns off the last few weeks. I swear I've seen her the entire day & night. Every time an anchor goes to news from the WH, it's Kaitlan again. I hate to admit that I've been watching more of CNN than MSNBC lately.

[Blue_true]

19. Collins got busy nailing the Trump mid-administration on it's lies as soon as she showed up

as a CNN correspondent. And to think, she started working out of college for, I think, the Weekly Standard (rightwing rag). Maybe she knew that would get her to Washington DC, where she could jump ship to a better job. She is clearly hardworking, she runs circles around most other reporters at the White House in that regard, except for Acosta and all the female reporters at the White House (Urban Radio, NBC, ABC, CBS), the female correspondents dug out facts and didn’t take shit from the Trump people.

[Blue_true]

15. Kaitlan Collins is moving up fast.

Don’t be surprised to see her anchoring a national news program soon, assuming that she doesn’t have gross shit that she wrote on social media or spoke in private.

[tulipsandroses]

16. What time will Acosta be on weekends?

I only watch CNN at night for Lemon and Cuomo. Will watch Acosta on the weekends as I am not fond of MSNBC's weekend line up after 12pm, except for Rev Al at 5.

[AlexSFCA]

25. CNN doesn't need any opinion shows

it should be high quality in depth news coverage, investigative journalism, exclusives, interviews, etc.

[Roy Rolling]

26. So true

They own the category of breaking news—everyone looks to CNN when something happens. A straight news show in prime time is a better offering than competing with opinion hosts—that’s a shrinking market.

[lagomorph777]

36. I wish they'd be a little more stingy with the "BREAKING NEWS" banner.

It's kind of getting diluted. There's plenty of real news flowing in these days (unfortunately). No need to hype every little thing.

[Turin_C3PO]

29. Looks like it's good changes.

I do think they should add more focus on international news though.

[BumRushDaShow]

33. "Jim Acosta will be leaving the WH Press Pool"

That poor guy probably needs a year paid sabbatical. The unrelenting abuse that he took over the past 4 years had to be a nightmare.