CNN International & Domestic

In the U.S. system, the primary season is an equally important part of the presidential election process -- and it's still a presidential debate. (Tonight's event was, to give it its official title, the CNN/Des Moines Register Democratic Presidential Debate.)

By the time the two nominees face each other in a few months, much of the democratic process will already be over.

This wasn’t a presidential debate mind. Just one party - so arguably a glorified hustings event.
I don’t think anybody is saying they shouldn’t simulcast the debate but given they usually air Ac360 to Don Lemon, Early Start and New Day already the existing simulcasts would’ve been sufficient simulcasting without eating further into the existing international schedule.
I doubt it matters that much to a viewer in say Hong Kong that the schedule needs to be thrown out the window. It’s pretty lazy scheduling. Even as someone fairly interested in US politics, CNN (especially Domestic) is way too anoraky.

Dumping The Brief and YWT for 4 hours of debate ‘build-up’ and then the European morning CNNI bulletins for a full replay are very much the issue here.

CNN were quite lucky last night actually. The Iran crisis, Australian bushfires, potential eruption in the Phillipines are all pretty big stories and there weren’t any major developments with many of those. They’d have had a dilemma if there’d been major developments in one of those.

Not quite sure why Quest Means Business suddenly dropped off halfway through to be replaced by the "Global Energy Challenge" just now?!

Think this one actually was planned - I've seen a few adverts for it mentioning it was at 8.30pm one night.

Last night's Situation Room simulcast felt a particularly pointless one even by CNN standards.

Thinking about it now, I guess Michael Holmes was actually promoted with his move from CNN Today to Atlanta overnights since that slot is the only one that gets to actually be on air regularly, plus it's also often simulcasted on domestic. With the election this year, we'll be seeing very little of Bianca, Isa and Cyril sadly.....

Plus he's on in the prime time evenings in Australia where he's from, so also makes sense with that in mind.

I have to admit I'm struggling to remember the last time we actually had a full week of The Brief or in particular YWT.

Speaking of Michael Holmes, I see Amara Walker has confirmed she's CNN Domestic rather than a CNNI anchor. A shame for us international viewers - but for goodness sake give her a slot ASAP Domestic. She's so much better than many of their regular anchors (naming no names).

Yeah, their weekend line-up is especially dire, Amara would be great for the Ana Cabrera slot which means we would get to see her as well.

Even by CNN simulcasting standards, they're outdoing themselves this hour.
The breaking news about Harry & Meghan is big no doubt but it seems an odd story to go into simulcasting mode over. And with it being a big breaking story about the UK and Canada and having next to no relevance to the US, it's of course CNN Domestic that take the lead. It must be CNN policy for Domestic to take the lead on breaking stories these days, otherwise if you're not simulcasting CNNI on a story like this when will you?

And I know simulcasting is at times warranted but the extent to which CNN do is beyond a joke at this stage - yes it's been a busy last few months newswise but it's at the stage where it's more of a surprise when CNNI do stick to their schedule.

Robyn Curnow has done a good job covering the Harry and Meghan story for CNNI today.

But if you think about it, the reason they simulcast an international story is because domestic want to cover it in breaking news mode as well and it's the most effective way to share resources- either on the ground or expertise etc. The reason they use domestic anchors is because domestic is their priority channel and they want presenters that are familiar to the US audience, most of which are also familiar to CNNI viewers anyway incidentally, but would not necessarily be the case the other way round.

BBC World do just the same, if they need to simulcast they will do a generic BBC News bulletin but in majority of cases News Channel will take the lead, sometimes joined by a World anchor if the situation warrants it.

I think criticism of the domestic simulcasting is over the top, by and large I enjoy it, and the reason I watch CNN is for the US perspective, otherwise why not watch Sky.