CNN: The Continuing Soap Opera

[nickp 337]

  Robin Meade and HLN was the only CNN-related programming I could stand to watch

[Rusty Muck 4366]

17 hours ago, Geoffrey said:

That's not what irony is, and Stelter is a student of cable news so he was a perfect person to write about this. And he mentioned that he previously worked at CNN.

Brian was badly—and I mean BADLY—miscast in his on-air role at CNN, but his written reporting and nightly online newsletter were highly, highly respected, @HulkieD often referred to the newsletter as indispensable.

 

Hopefully he has a recurring role at the Atlantic.

[nathannah 2401]

7 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

In the U.S. alone, WBD owns or operates 49 cable networks:

The HBO and Cinemax suite is understandable; you're paying for that on your own (though those multiplex nets will die the same way PPV will, slowly as every movie is accessible on-demand). And they do have a perfectly broad Spanish-language portfolio that shouldn't be touched. Some networks (especially sports) are regional-only, and don't forget that it's WBD that also manages NBA League Pass, so TEN more channels there.

 

But the only time anyone thinks about TruTV is at tournament time and it's basically a 90/10 ownership split between the Practical Jokers and WBD . There is so much bulk you'd think could be cut as a section on HBOMax like Motor Trend (itself just a rebranding of an HD demo channel), the Travel Channel (a misnomer for over a decade), the Science Channel (which has really suffered under Zazlav's departure from educational programming), Destination America (a hurried rebranding that might as well be Things that Occur In America rather than actually focused on American stuff), and American Heroes (which mostly highlights criminals and is the actual subject of Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero", girl just wants to watch stuff about Patton, Teddy Roosevelt and Patrick Henry ). And there are entire papers written about how TLC's shows have damaged the kids who have been forced onto it and those who want to be the next big numbered heavy person to get a show on it, while Animal Planet seems to think just having an animal is excuse enough for human-focused junk to be on that network. Discovery Life and Family just seem to have no purpose any longer outside the Hasbro contract and as a burn-off network for old producers they don't want to work with any longer.

The true untouchable of course is TCM and the others on top like HGTV, Food, ID, CN, Discovery, and you keep OWN because you aren't dumping Oprah. They should just fold TNT into TBS if they don't intend to keep their former drama/comedy split and just want a sports/big show cable network.

[CLETVFan 367]

Discovery Life and Family used to be Hub and was a lot better with sitcoms after the Hasbro shows.  It was a good attempt to compete with Nickelodeon.

[mre29 1513]

15 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

In the U.S. alone, WBD owns or operates 49 cable networks:

 

They may as well be a cable TV company. All they need is a 24-hour weather channel.

 

"Yo, I heard you like cable systems, so I got you a cable system for your cable system."

 

[LTSC1980 112]

9 hours ago, CLETVFan said:

Discovery Family used to be The Hub and was a lot better with sitcoms after the Hasbro shows.  It was a good attempt to compete with Nickelodeon.

FIFY

[MD TV 253]

I know there's been some sort of rumor of turning TNT or TBS into something sports-oriented. 

 

At least NBC Universal knows how to fold channels. For example, they knew that NBCSN wouldn't have much of a point without the NHL.

[nathannah 2401]

11 hours ago, mre29 said:

 

They may as well be a cable TV company. All they need is a 24-hour weather channel.

 

"Yo, I heard you like cable systems, so I got you a cable system for your cable system."

 

They did have one online during the Pipeline era as a map-only feed (CNN online video failure isn't just limited to now), so it's been done. 

[cg41386 132]

Final hour of Morning Express is airing now.

[Georgie56 3292]

Final sign off:

 

 

[Geoffrey 856]

Thanks for sharing! And now HLN is airing Forensic Files at 8 a.m. Not even a replay.

[CLETVFan 367]

48 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

Thanks for sharing! And now HLN is airing Forensic Files at 8 a.m. Not even a replay.

They couldn't wait to get rid of Morning Express.  They should have replayed the last hour at 8am.  

[Rusty Muck 4366]

1 hour ago, Georgie56 said:

Final sign off:

 

 

That montage all but encapsulated Stelter's piece in the Atlantic. The channel in it's original format was not only rendered obsolete, the truly ugly parts that came thereafter (Nancy Grace and her obsession with Casey Anthony) ultimately and irrevocably destroyed HLN's reputation en route to becoming a true crime rerun library channel.
 

Meade's show felt increasingly out of place and to be blunt, I'm shocked it lasted as long as it did. Because HLN was already a zombie network and had been for years. Even with Meade, it had no identity, no direction, and honestly, no purpose to even exist as a cable channel.

Edited December 5, 2022 by Myron Falwell

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

That montage all but encapsulated Stelter's piece in the Atlantic. The channel in it's original format was not only rendered obsolete, the truly ugly parts that came thereafter (Nancy Grace and her obsession with Casey Anthony) ultimately and irrevocably destroyed HLN's reputation en route to becoming a true crime rerun library channel.
 

Meade's show felt increasingly out of place and to be blunt, I'm shocked it lasted as long as it did. Because HLN was already a zombie network and had been for years. Even with Meade, it had no identity, no direction, and honestly, no purpose to even exist as a cable channel.

Exactly. WBD doesn't know what to to with HLN now? Investigation Discovery reruns? Anything to keep costs low?

[Rusty Muck 4366]

2 minutes ago, RetroCirqII said:

Exactly. WBD doesn't know what to to with HLN now? Investigation Discovery reruns? Anything to keep costs low?

It's made more complicated by Investigation Discovery having a much better brand and name awareness despite a smaller nationwide cable footprint.

 

Plus—per Stelter—the simulcast of CNN This Morning is explicitly due to carriage contracts with cable companies that require HLN air a bare minimum of news programming. Stelter’s background working for CNN makes him very unlikely to simply make up an urban legend.

[MediaZone4K 2158]

Ad revenue is the obvious answer but HLN might aswell go off the air totally.

[J1975am 208]

2 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

It's made more complicated by Investigation Discovery having a much better brand and name awareness despite a smaller nationwide cable footprint.

 

Plus—per Stelter—the simulcast of CNN This Morning is explicitly due to carriage contracts with cable companies that require HLN air a bare minimum of news programming. Stelter’s background working for CNN makes him very unlikely to simply make up an urban legend.

How long do contracts like these last (or specifically, contracts like the ones HLN has with cable companies), I’m curious?

 

I’m not one to speculate, but I’m guessing the future of HLN can’t be good once the contracts you mentioned expire….

[NYTV 117]

5 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

It's made more complicated by Investigation Discovery having a much better brand and name awareness despite a smaller nationwide cable footprint.

 

Plus—per Stelter—the simulcast of CNN This Morning is explicitly due to carriage contracts with cable companies that require HLN air a bare minimum of news programming. Stelter’s background working for CNN makes him very unlikely to simply make up an urban legend.

At this point now that Morning/Weekend Express has been canceled, What exactly is HLN at this point? What would be the justification for TV companies to justify having it on its system?

[Dk_mediaNYC 30]

7 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

Final sign off:

 

 

Horrible this was a great show hoping this backfires!

[mre29 1513]

8 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

It's made more complicated by Investigation Discovery having a much better brand and name awareness despite a smaller nationwide cable footprint.

 

This makes me wonder if the plan is for ID to take over HLN's channel space on most cable systems once the latter is fully shut down.

 

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

Like the old Headline news was years ago, cable channels have become an endless jukebox of shows.   It's silly to think what purpose they even serve as the shows they air on repeat over and over again are often readily available on demand from a streaming service without the on-screen clutter and commercials that pretty much put things on at oddball times (that's more of a TVLand thing though and TBS TurnerTime is long gone.)

 

Since they're jukeboxes, they're pretty much turnkey operations that require little human intervention.   And in the digital realm where channel space is unlimited, these channels won't go away anytime soon until everybody switches to streaming and the cable bundle dies once and for all.

[CLETVFan 367]

18 hours ago, mre29 said:

 

This makes me wonder if the plan is for ID to take over HLN's channel space on most cable systems once the latter is fully shut down.

 

What would make sense is to simply move HLN over to ID and not have to change channel positions.  Both channels with similar makes one necessary and the other redundant.

[mre29 1513]

5 hours ago, CLETVFan said:

What would make sense is to simply move HLN over to ID and not have to change channel positions.  Both channels with similar makes one necessary and the other redundant.

 

That's basically what I said, only going in the other direction.

 

[Geoffrey 856]

I'm curious about what they're doing with the newsroom, and if it's going to be used for CNN This Morning. As previously mentioned, shows that has been using the newsroom are in a temporary set (I think a different corner of the AC360 studio).

 

I haven't liked CNN's newsroom sets in New York, both in the old Time Warner Center location and at the current Hudson Yards space. They look like boring offices with some monitors. I miss the old newsroom at CNN Center, which really felt like it was designed to be used on TV. I think part of the difference is that the New York newsrooms use robotic cameras, which really gives a different feel to the broadcast.

[MediaZone4K 2158]

9 hours ago, Geoffrey said:

I haven't liked CNN's newsroom sets in New York, both in the old Time Warner Center location and at the current Hudson Yards space. They look like boring offices with some monitors. I miss the old newsroom at CNN Center, which really felt like it was designed to be used on TV. I think part of the difference is that the New York newsrooms use robotic cameras, which really gives a different feel to the broadcast.

Yes! The old newsroom set was much more grand and felt like you were in the middle of a non stop news operation.