mountainave

Phil Mattingly was named Chief Domestic Correspondent: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/cnn-phil-mattingly-chief-domestic-correspondent-1235924781/

What's been going on with Don Lemon (and Elon Musk)?

- Following his termination from CNN last year, both parties agreed to a $25 million settlement for which he'll be paid the remaining 3.5 years of his contract: https://www.thewrap.com/don-lemon-cnn-split-deal/

- He signed a deal with X (fka Twitter) to produce a show a la Tucker Carlson's deal with X

- The show launches next week with Lemon interviewing Elon Musk.  It's now reported that following the interview taping, Musk texted Lemon's reps to say he was cancelling the content deal. Kara Swisher reports Musk was particularly angered when Lemon started to ask him about his drug use.   https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/13/elon-musk-cancels-x-partnership-with-don-lemon-after-interview.html

- Allison Gollust, the former CNN comms executive with whom Jeff Zucker had a relationship, and who subsequently left CNN after Zucker left, is now Lemon's PR rep

- Lemon will return to CNN for the first time since his ouster tonight to talk with Erin Burnett about his interview with Musk

Longtime political analyst John Avlon's last day at CNN was today.  Puck News is reporting he intends to run for Congress.

13 hours ago, Jase said:

No amount of time could have saved the first incarnation of CNN This Morning. Don, Poppy and Kaitlan were (are) polar opposites of each other and never truly seemed interested in making the show work nor supporting (uplifting) each other in any way from the beginning.

 

Of course building chemistry takes time, but everyone has to be willing to do the work and I never got that from them. It was a pain to watch.

Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos are quite different in personality, interests, demeanor, affect, etc and have been number 1 for years.  Gayle King and Charlie Rose were pretty dissimilar but helped CBSTM rise steadily.  You don't need people who are carbon copies of one another.  Your argument that the three on CNN never truly seemed interested in making the show work nor supporting each other is not a factual one. Poppy and Kaitlan were and are close friends; their chemistry has always been evident. Don may have been an issue but could have been replaced with someone else from inside or outside the network.

Bit of a shame.  I may be in the minority, but I think the first incarnation of CNN This Morning with Poppy Harlow, Don Lemon, and Kaitlan Collins was a quality product that just needed time.  The three of them each brought something -- Poppy as a longtime anchor with a business acumen, Kaitlan as an incisive political questioner, and Don as an older guy attuned to social issues with an ability to humanize. Yes, Lemon stuck his foot in his mouth one too many times, but in the three of them you really had an ensemble of three smart anchors with different yet complementary skills.  When there wasn't off-camera acrimony or awkward on-camera blunders, the three actually did have good TV chemistry.  To be clear, I'm not saying they should've kept Don.  Just lamenting the show's potential, had things worked properly.

Firing Don and plucking Kaitlan off was a one-two punch to the show.  Then it never got the new set it was promised.  Then they decided to return to a stale two-anchor format, and plopped in Phil Mattingly who has a goofy sense of humor and a great political acumen but is still somewhat awkward at the anchor desk and plays too much "inside baseball" when asking questions during his political interviews, which works for a midday show but not for morning.  The morning warmth disappeared from the show and it started to feel like any other two-anchor show of CNN's prior days. 

Something else that's telling.  After deciding to move News Central up, they could have moved Poppy and Phil from the morning slot into the 10a-noon slot, either together or each with their own show.  Instead, they completely took them off the schedule, brought Acosta over from the weekend, and gave Pamela her own show.  Apparently someone decided Poppy and Phil have had enough.

Great job for a high school production!

Sade shared she's having knee surgery and will be out for an extended period of time

Interestingly, Erin Burnett, who usually anchors from NY, is anchoring election coverage from DC today, and Wolf Blitzer, who usually anchors from DC, is anchoring election coverage from NY today.  They did the same swap last week covering Iowa, I believe. 

Morning edition of CNN News Central is back to using stand-ups with full graphics, but the afternoon edition still has Keilar and Sanchez sitting at a desk without studio graphics.

The talent openings and transitions are too boxy for me (see @TheNewsTV's screenshots above),  but overall seems like a nice dynamic update. 

Sara Sidner announced she's being treated for stage 3 breast cancer.

https://nypost.com/2024/01/08/media/cnn-anchor-sara-sidner-says-she-has-stage-3-breast-cancer/

https://people.com/sara-sidner-breast-cancer-diagnosis-exclusive-interview-8423441

Funny, I actually just came here to make the same observation that the the AM and PM versions seem to have almost entirely dropped the stand-ups that were meant to define the show in favor of anchors stationed at a desk.  Bit of a shame, in my opinion.  I think Licht was onto something -- the stand-ups did give the show more of an active feel that differentiated it from the rest of the day's desk-based programming.

GMA3 straddles the line between a news broadcast and a talk show.  Most of the other late morning / early afternoon talk shows also go on holiday hiatus, so it's not really much different.  It gives the production staff time off. 

Take it for what you will, but this is what Dani Beckstrom had to say:

As I said, she's freelancing.  Again, freelance doesn't necessarily mean temporary.  Just means she's not currently under a long-term contract.  Therefore, she's likely either helping with coverage during the holidays a la Andy Field or is being eased onto the team with someone else's planned departure.

11 hours ago, MisterBill said:

 

Is she, though? Raegan posted that her "#CommercialBreak OFFICIALLY OVER" (that's what she had been calling her time away from TV). If it was just a temporary gig, I don't think she would have worded it that way.

 

Yes, she was hired by WABC as a freelancer.  Freelance doesn't necessarily = temporary, though.  It's increasingly common for talent to join stations as freelancers and then receive a proper contract thereafter.

That said, I maintain, as I originally said, that she's either helping with holiday coverage or ultimately replacing someone else.  I'm certain WABC isn't planning to employ 6 meteorologists.

6 hours ago, RealNews18 said:

She must be training. Dani put up an Instagram story and she is in the studio with her. So they now technically have 6 on air weather people? 

Doubtful 6 is the goal.  She's freelancing, so either she's just helping with holiday vacation fill-ins as Andy Field and Sonia Rincon used to do, or someone else is leaving.

It's not new.  WNT has had correspondents doing live shots on West 67th St or Columbus Ave outside of ABC for years. 

Amy Robach and TJ Holmes have inked a podcast and content deal with iHeartMedia.  It's unclear if Robach is still in discussions to join NewsNation.

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/amy-robach-t-j-holmes-iheartmedia-podcast-1235775921/

On 11/21/2023 at 3:04 AM, CraigViewer said:

I was thinking about the status of this program myself over the weekend.  It was always set to premiere this fall, but it did feel as if has been taking longer than usual to debut, however.  My guess is that it any delay may have had something to do at least in part due to the change of CEOs at WarnerMedia.

CNN delayed its launch in favor of consistent prime-time coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

Stacey Sager has been off the air while receiving treatment for breast cancer.  Boy, she's been through a lot over the years.  She'll start returning intermittently when she feels up to it, she recently posted.

On 11/8/2023 at 5:47 PM, nycnewsjunkie said:

This is the kind of thing most people wouldn’t have even cared about if there weren’t predatory outlets that drew attention to it. I don’t understand the tabloid fixation with this kind of stuff; if Strahan is dealing w/ something in private, leave him alone and give him a break.

Simple: it gets clicks.

Ah, I didn't actually realize Chris Wallace's Saturday AM slot was for an entirely new show.  I had thought it would just be an airing (or rebroadcast) of Who's Talking.

The writing has been on the wall for years.  GMA has (unfortunately, in my opinion) been using less and less of its Times Square backyard.  It was once upon a time a focal point of the show with the windows open behind the anchor desk, frequent camera shots of TS, and regular segments outside.  Given that this has all been mostly eliminated, there's frankly no reason to continue renting what is highly-valuable real estate.  They could build a studio in the middle of nowhere and produce the show in its current format.

15 minutes ago, wabceyewitness said:

Radio could be it!   Bill Evans just posted a photo of him and Ken together. Perhaps Ken is jointing Bill’s radio station in Sag Harbor?

That was actually my first thought before even knowing about a picture of them together!  We'll see...