04-04-2023, 05:11 PM
Managed to watch a whole show of News Central today and it's probably one of the high points so far of the Licht era. A well produced news show with mostly a mix of the top stories from the USA but a few other important international stories as well.
It's very well paced with a fair amount of time dedicated to each story, I know Trump would be the main story but it actually feels like others have got just as much time as well and the use of correspondents are really good. The Trump news is the sort of thing that would just get all day coverage with Zucker in charge with everything else just ignored.
As noted on the page before with News Central, there has been very little interviews and taking heads and that's a plus for me. I'm less bothered about that during special event and primetime shows like CNN Tonight but there's no need for it during daytime. Most of that has been replaced by reporting from correspondents and analysis from non-partisan analysts and experts. It's also really good to see simple explainer graphics on the studio screens. They may be simple but are very effective in explaining the story.
The only thing I would change at the moment is the presenter interaction, there's very little of it at the moment and whilst a fast paced news show makes there little opportunity for that, it would be at least a good idea to see some more segments done with two presenters and some with just one. I do also wonder how they would deal with a big breaking news story as well, I don't think it would be suitable for them to be standing all the time for that, they surely would at least get them a desk for serious news.
But overall it's a massive thumbs up for me so far, the exact sort of show CNN needs in the morning and I look forward to seeing it all when they also do this in Washington into the afternoon as well.
It's very well paced with a fair amount of time dedicated to each story, I know Trump would be the main story but it actually feels like others have got just as much time as well and the use of correspondents are really good. The Trump news is the sort of thing that would just get all day coverage with Zucker in charge with everything else just ignored.
As noted on the page before with News Central, there has been very little interviews and taking heads and that's a plus for me. I'm less bothered about that during special event and primetime shows like CNN Tonight but there's no need for it during daytime. Most of that has been replaced by reporting from correspondents and analysis from non-partisan analysts and experts. It's also really good to see simple explainer graphics on the studio screens. They may be simple but are very effective in explaining the story.
The only thing I would change at the moment is the presenter interaction, there's very little of it at the moment and whilst a fast paced news show makes there little opportunity for that, it would be at least a good idea to see some more segments done with two presenters and some with just one. I do also wonder how they would deal with a big breaking news story as well, I don't think it would be suitable for them to be standing all the time for that, they surely would at least get them a desk for serious news.
But overall it's a massive thumbs up for me so far, the exact sort of show CNN needs in the morning and I look forward to seeing it all when they also do this in Washington into the afternoon as well.