17-03-2023, 05:10 AM
(16-03-2023, 06:59 PM)interestednovice Wrote: This idea of a topical Primetime hour, hosted by any of CNN’s major presenters, seems to be working well.
Far better than trying to “build a show” around a personality, such as with Cuomo or Don Lemon’s old shows. As ever with CNN, though, they just have to sort out mornings. Poppy is a veteran morning presenter who always comes across as “warm”, Kaitlan has the newsy background, but I don’t think Don works as the “tie it together”, “familiar CNN face” his role probably requires.
I also don’t get how they could have axed New Day for a supposedly more hard-News show but then make it “all about the conversation”? That’s fluffy soft news, and the major US networks already have that audience sewn up anyway. I really think proper hard news is the niche to be filled (and it would also make the international simulcast more bearable - Early Start on CNNI was always fine because of it’s newsy content, despite the name).
Presenting from a desk and being willing to do proper interviews is a start, but editorial priorities also need to focus on news and not fluff.
It seems like they want to make a splash in the mornings by getting a lot of big, newsworthy interviews that are going to become daylong news items on both CNN and competing news outlets, not unlike Morning Joe at its height. It's not a bad strategy, but I agree that Don Lemon is just a really bad fit all around.
The other problem is just that CNN has never had a tradition of being very strong in the morning. Between local news and the networks, there's already too much competition, and both of those options are going to be more appealing to most morning viewers than anything CNN can put together.