CNN International & Domestic

Going back to HLN, I've seen Headline News used on the Morning/Weekend Express bulletins.

I really like them as a pairing when I've watched. Nice they get a big screen, and a bit of space to breathe, but can't help feel it looks and feels a bit "thrown together" and temporary.

Love the new set, I was hoping they would do this years ago. Amara and Michael are a great pairing and CNN Today probably my favorite show on CNNI last few years.

Lovely new look for CNN Today (as well as the new studio there's been tweaks to the background and graphics) and it fits well into Studio 7 and makes full use of that space.
I'd love CNN International to get more chance to use that studio when they can - it's much better than many of their other more minimalist sets.

Like others have said I really like Michael and Amara as a pairing. Cyril Vanier is quite good too when he's filled in every so often.

In related CNN Today news, which hopefully isn't deemed as being instrusive into a presenter's private life (since they announced the news themselves over Twitter), Amara has announced she's pregnant so will be away for a while later this year.

I’d call this “developing” news... of a baby... due this spring :) Some of you have already noticed. Thanks for the well wishes! pic.twitter.com/SjejlcqD1H

— Amara Walker (@AmaraCNN) January 8, 2018

Its clear that Micheal is a consummate professional and quite experienced and its so nice, that when Amara came on the had immediate chemistry. And Amara who immediately left local news in Chicago and jumped right into CNNi running. I like how they are really easy going with each. And their delivery is breezy but not too informal. This paring is a huge departure from Andrew Stevens and Patricia Wu. They had no chemistry at all when they anchored from Hong Kong.

Seems odd to me that they have a backdrop of cities in Asia when they're thousands of miles away in the bustling metropole of Atlanta, Georgia. It feels like a very sorry attempt to try cling onto the glory days of when CNN had a really great news block for Asia views, and it *did* come live from Asia.

That's not to say that the current CNN Today is terrible. It's actually a pretty good newsblock, but I'm guessing the Asia backdrops are probably lost on most viewers (even the ones in Asia).

Are those sofas meant to be trendy? Those are the sort of things your great grandmother might get from HSL in this country.

I wonder if Kristie is having a jab at the HK backdrop in the Atlanta studio:

(And yes, that *is* Hong Kong behind me...)

Just wrapped CNN News Room. Back with the headlines and then News Stream at 9p Hong Kong, 1p London. See you then. @cnni #nscnn pic.twitter.com/EnQWA4Dgui

— Kristie Lu Stout✌🏽 (@klustout) February 5, 2018

Yeah I'd say that was a bit of shade. Well they did just move into a new HK studio. Its a cheaper location but virtually the same as the old location. The new office is around 11,744 square feet in size, roughly the same as the US media titan’s current Hong Kong headquarters that are spread over 12 floors at Oxford House in Taikoo Place.

A lot of heart & hustle went into tonight’s big new studio debut. Props to Team News Stream. And props to our viewers who always look out for the fine details of our fine program. 😊👊🏽❤️📺✌🏽#livefromhongkong #CNN #NewsStream (pic ht @RedsailorJ) pic.twitter.com/9Bk1r2Ngq6

— Kristie Lu Stout✌🏽 (@klustout) January 22, 2018

"I think the map itself doesn't provide an acute security risk to personnel on the ground, but rather is a useful wake-up call about needing to toe the line between personal convenience & operational security."

- @Nrg8000 on his #StravaHeatMap discovery
https://t.co/INxmTAr2jc

— Kristie Lu Stout✌🏽 (@klustout) January 30, 2018

As you say it's a good newsblock on the whole. The only shame is that (at least until recently) often there's not much of it shown in Europe - the lack of news bulletins seems to be a recurring issue when I watch CNN and was particularly noticeable late at night.

While Asia viewers get the full 2 and a bit hours of CNN Today and a 30-minute World Sport bulletin, Europe instead gets:

-1 hour of repeats from a few hours earlier (Amanpour maybe makes sense, State of America less so)
-75 minutes of sports bulletins (often with segments clearly taken from their canned programs to pad out the bulletin)
-45 minutes of CNN Today

It almost feels as if they go out their way to not show the news given Asia is already airing CNN Today and CNN Domestic would be showing the Situation Room (which while it's rather over-the-top and not everyone's cup of tea is still one of CNN's main shows).
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And that's without even getting into weekends where if you tune in at the wrong time bar 'headline updates' you're left waiting hours for an international news bulletin.

Hala Gorani gave an interview on Monocle 24 earlier this week about the importance of on-screen presentation elements in attracting viewers' attention, and also the importance of increasing diversity of the voices featured on CNN - may be of interest to some.

As of next week, CNN Talk (which up until now had been on Fridays and more recently also on Monday) becomes daily.

The show when I've seen it is pretty good so no problems with it going daily

The shame is that another international news bulletin is sacrificed for the new show and that between 9.30am-1pm UK time on weekdays there's no internatonal news bulletins. Not exactly impressive by the 'World's News Leader'.