[ginnyfan]

I think this Earth background, used for the eclipse coverage, would look much better than that dark depressing Atlanta thing they insist on using. I't's similar to Sky News in 2005, a proper background for a global news channel, but then again, is CNNI a global news channel these days?

i.postimg.cc 

SPECIAL COVERAGE 08 04 2024 (1) — Postimages
Upload Upload by URL Website plugins Windows App Log inSign up Zoom Download ori…
  Source: postimg.cc

i.postimg.cc 

SPECIAL COVERAGE 08 04 2024 (3) — Postimages
Upload Upload by URL Website plugins Windows App Log inSign up Zoom Download ori…
  Source: postimg.cc

i.postimg.cc 

SPECIAL COVERAGE 08 04 2024 (4) — Postimages
Upload Upload by URL Website plugins Windows App Log inSign up Zoom Download ori…
  Source: postimg.cc

[TMD_24]

For the Trump trial CNN, both on Domestic and International, started using a sidebar on the left that carries live text feed of what is going on in the courtroom (in addition to the coverage taking the rest of the screen).

postimg.cc 

Not sure if it's the same change on domestic but they changed the sidebar on International to the point where it looks far too big on screen.

[oscillon]

Not sure if it's the same change on domestic but they changed the sidebar on International to the point where it looks far too big on screen.

It's now the same wider sidebar on both Domestic and International.

postimg.cc 

CNN Wider Sidebar 20240513 Int — Postimages
Upload Upload by URL Website plugins Windows App Log inSign up Zoom Download ori…
  Source: postimg.cc

postimg.cc 

CNN Wider Sidebar 20240513 US — Postimages
Upload Upload by URL Website plugins Windows App Log inSign up Zoom Download ori…
  Source: postimg.cc

Lynda definitely did the 2am and 3am hours this morning. Agreed that she deserves a permanent show, although it should be more than two thirty minute bulletins two days a week. Never understood why they need a third anchor on weekends, Fred has been doing 4 hour shows for years!

Yep, you're right, I misread the time on archive and even on my own screenshot! As for the possibility of turning 6-hour weeknights into two 3-hour shifts - I think they occasionally do that when there is lack of anchors. Why they don't do it more regularly - may be some contractual obligations with anchors regarding certain amount of hours they have to be on air, may be some limitations on overnight work.

[Charles]

I just finished Hala Gorani's new memoir. It is a really fantastic read that I would recommend to anyone, especially anyone who is or was a CNNI fan. Much of the book is a reflection on her Arab-Franco-American identity, her family's roots in Syria, her more rambunctious days in school, and her search for belonging across the world. She has a lot of really great stories reporting from the field. Some of the most compelling stories she tells include her time in Tahrir Square in 2011 and co-anchoring from a Cairo hotel room with Andersoon Cooper, getting questioned by Syrian authorities while filming Inside the Middle East with Schams, and reporting from the somewhat raucous Baghdad bureau during the war, with another CNN correspondent later professing his love for her.

She doesn't really get a lot into the weeds on the TV business or presentation, but a few snippets I found interesting that people on here might find interesting:

- Lou Dobbs was the one who hired Hala at CNN. He was the managing editor of CNNfn at the time and decided she was the right hire after watching her tape for less than a minute.
- She and Richard Quest are not friends and have never really socialized outside of work, but she thought that they made for a great anchor team and could balance each other out well on air. (Conspicuously there is almost no mention of one of her other CNNI co-anchors: Jim Clancy).
- CNNI put "biz" or "business" into show titles in the early 2000s because they thought it would make the shows more attractive to advertisers, but nobody at CNN seriously thought of shows like BizNews as actual business programs.
- Hala unsuccessfully tried to persuade Jeff Zucker to allow CNNI to do its own coverage of the 2018 US midterm election for an international audience. She thought it was important that CNNI cover big world and US events separately from CNN/US for an international audience.
- She criticizes Zucker for sidelining CNNI anchors for CNN US anchors for all of the big stories, and she speaks at various points about how she always felt like CNNI talent was always seen as second fiddle to the main CNN US talent.
- She does not go intro too much granular detail about why she ultimately left CNN, and she is too classy to lay blame at anyone. But, she criticizes the shrinking of international news budgets. She contrasted CNNI's coverage of the 2022 French presidential election, where she did it all in studio in London, to previous years when she anchored from the field on the Champs-Elysees. She said the same thing about the 2022 German elections.
- Hala turned down an offer to anchor Le Grand Journal on Canal+ after Antoine de Caunes left.
- Hala was close to going to one of the big 3 US networks in 2004 but had a very condescending final job interview with one of the evening news anchors, who told her she wasn't correspondent material. (Find out who in the book!)

[Omnipresent]

Interesting article in Variety which reports the CNN is to make a US version of Have I Got News For You and bring back original series & documentaries:

variety.com 

CNN's Entelis Vows to 'Rebuild' Original Series, Documentaries
CNN aims to revive its original documentary films and series, which helped expan…
  Source: variety.com

Meanwhile, CNN hopes to move its Saturday-night schedule into what Entelis calls “topical entertainment.” The network will launch an American version of the long-running BBC program “Have I Got News for You,” in which a rotating panel of comedians, pundits, political experts and entertainers hash out the news of the week.

[TMD_24]

CNN doing a presidential debate on June 27th, I think it's the first head to head debate between the main two candidates this campaign.

x.com 

[TMD_24]

CNN doing a presidential debate on June 27th, I think it's the first head to head debate between the main two candidates this campaign.

x.com 

Just want to add to this as the press release mentioned the debate will be done in the Atlanta Studios with no audience.

[mouseboy33]

Too bad CNN Center is gone. Imagine it in the atrium. So now we will see some of the other spaces at Turner Techwood. Will be a CNN space or maybe a TNT space? Will be interesting to see.

[EastCoast]

I’d expect them to use Studio H. They did primary debates in Studio 7 a few years ago and they did a debate in the DC studio at the beginning of the pandemic.

Huge get for CNN landing the first debate.

[JK08]

Maybe some of our American friends might know… how unusual is it for broadcasters to host general election debates? I can’t think of another example of a network producing their own debate outside of the three (four including VP) Debate Commission events?