CNN International & Domestic

I do like the little presentational quirks you can get on some of the shows like Your World Today (which has lovely presentation and it looked incredible during that brief spell it was in the new studio pre Coronavirus) but yeah too often CNNI ‘shows’ are the same news with slightly different presentation. I’d struggle to tell you the content difference between YWT, Hala's show, Newsroom and CTW. All good shows but they’re essentially the same thing.

The Brief is one that is one of the more cohesive strands as it has a different look and feel to the other bulletins. A fast-paced, substantive summary of the day’s news.

CNNI and CNNUS are completely different in feel which is the issue. The International stuff can often still be overly American focussed (probably by decree of TPTB) but still on the whole is watchable and full of great presenters and reporters if maybe lacking bulletins and not having the 'proper news channel feel' of old as a result.

But the US output is just too much - basically non stop political talking heads and endless inane breaking news hour after hour. Each hour there feels like the same output just with a different head. Whereas even a decade back shows at least felt distinct.

I think what AJE does that CNNI really suffers with is that I can watch AJE night or day and I know I'll get a comprehensive news summary or not be far from one. Even if they're airing an hour-long taped programme you'll still get a comprehensive news summary for a few minutes at the start and bottom of the hour. But 80% of the time you'll get at least a half-hour bulletin to start the hour.

Whereas CNNI it's pot luck on when you tune in. If you tune in during US primetime forget about any international news and same often with weekends where it's instead Inside Africa, Erin Burnett et al on a horrible loop.
And the content on AJE is often far better - you get a much more comprehensive look at the world whereas CNNI is too American focused even when you do get an International bulletin. And that's not to criticise the CNNI reporters and presenters - many of whom are very good. It's more down to the higher ups.

And definetely like others have said the likes of Cuomo, Lemon, Chatterley at times act like they ARE the news with the way they present rather than simply reporting it.

I said it in the AJE thread but it's the closest thing in 2020 to what BBC World was at the turn of the century. Comprehensive summaries of the news presented by strong journalists and with the news very much the star.

Sadly though, that's the only alternative as BBC World News is unavailable unless you want to go through the trouble of...let's say pointing a satellite dish in the direction of Astra 1KR. Lest I digress, I have to say though that whenever I get to watch BBC World News, I don't get a sense that the UK does not exist as the channel hardly covers stories about the UK on its main news bulletins. In fact, I get a sense that CNNI has more UK-related stories in its programmes than BBC World does.

That was/is the whole purpose of BBC World. It was never meant to be for the diaspora living outside the UK to get UK news. It's commercially funded as it's not aimed for the same tax-paying audience. It's externally facing from the UK, yes, stories which carry weight from the UK do sometimes get broadcast. But it's "World News" for a "world service" essentially - well it was. I haven't watched BBC World in years, actually since it stopped being called World and became World News, Impact this, GMT that. I completely agree with BFGArmy and all_night, AJE is the way to go.

CNNI was (is??) the same from the US market, i.e. externally facing, hence appealing to the UK audience (alongside the rest of the world, of course) and had/will have more UK focused news than BBC World.

I think I've figured it out, as soon as Adrian Finighan jumps ship, I jump along with him, the BBC was great when he was the face (and voice), CNNI was great at that time, now AJE...

Actually, I believe CNNI started out to serve the American diaspora in Europe. So pre-Gulf War CNNI was basically like what Sky News International is now, a replica of the domestic service minus the ads and timepiece, though they substituted some shows with selected Headline News bulletins.

I agree about their existing remits except that in some ways, CNNI airs UK stories that are expected to air only on a UK domestic newscast at most. Also, CNNI recognises the US exists (in terms of stories that won’t arouse the foreign ministry or the CEO class) much more than BBC World does to the UK.

cnn.com has Bianca Nobilo presenting CNN Newsroom 6-8amUK Saturday and 5-6amUK and 7-8amUK Sunday. Michael Holmes is covering for Natalie. Assuming Bianca is in the UK, it differs from the past when London has covered weekend mornings, as it would usually be Natalie's slots that come from London.


It really does depend when at weekends you watch as to how much this is the case. Some parts of the schedule are devoid of anything more than headlines for hours as far as live news is concerned, but others are not. The pre-Coronavirus Saturday schedule was pretty good for 17 hours a day (0500-2200 UK), with live international news for at least 15 minutes at 0500, 0700, 0800, 0900, 1000, 1200, 1500, 1600, 1800, 1900 and 2100, 11 out of 17 hours with more than just headlines/nothing. Sunday mornings had news at the same times as well. CNNI had caused a lot of self inflicted damage to their weekend news reputation, but at certain parts of the weekend they have slowly and quietly been improving.

Good to hear that Bianca will be anchoring this weekend. She has been a fantastic find by CNNI and the Brief has been much missed during this coronavirus coverage. A show like that is needed more than ever and her presenting and many others on CNNI is a real antidote to some of those on CNN Domestic.




That's true Saturdays were better when it came to news bulletins but even in there some of those were 15 minute bulletins (like at 16.00) and you still have chunks of nearly 2 hours or more without a bulletin at points during the bulletin period. So still not ideal.

Sundays are what I remember being particularly bad - you'd have an International bulletin at 12.00 then there'd only be CTW from an Internaitonal perspective until 22.00.
I think what made the weekends worse was some of the simulcast content clearly isn't suitable from an International perspective. Fareed Zakaria GPS & State of the Union are acceptable enough to simulcast and even US bulletins are reasonable enough every so often but shows like Inside Politics, Smerconish and Reliable Sources really never needed aired internationally. I doubt many American viewers particularly care about that level of minutae/specialist nature of programming never mind viewers in Copenhagen, Hong Kong and Rome.

1600 was the only 15 minute bulletin on Saturdays

Sundays afternoons were even worse than that though. When CTW went to 2 hours, the 1200 CNN Newsroom got axed. IIRC the Fareed Zakaria GPS airing that used to air at either 1500 or 1600UK when CTW was 1 hour moved to 1200 (and consequently debuted on CNNI before CNN/US). So Sundays gained an extra half hour of news but with worse 'spacing' of live news time

(As a side note there are two little oddities in CNNI's normal Saturday schedule. The Saturday only 1200 CNN Newsroom, the only day of the week with international news at that time. Also the Saturday 2100 CNN Newsroom when there are domestic simulcasts in the slot the rest of the week - if it was moved an hour later there would then be a live international bulletin at 2200 everyday)

Totally agree about Inside Politics and Reliable Sources - the latter in particular as it led to the Sunday 1800 and 1900 CNN Newsroom's being axed. Smerconish sometimes has some interesting and different segments, and it never replaced any live international newscasts, so I don't mind it so much. Still if it was replaced by live international news I wouldn't complain.

Max Foster, CNN.

New promo c/o the brilliant Susan Moss and team... pic.twitter.com/HbDjfTAaH2

— Max Foster (@MaxFosterCNN) May 23, 2020

If Brooke Baldwin's instastory is anything to go by, it looks as though CNN New York have at least configured their newsroom set so it meets social distancing guidelines. It'll be interesting to see if any others come back online on Monday.

Unfortunately this is a gif Brooke posted in February that’s she reusing. I doubt we’ll see any studios besides 7 in Atlanta for a while.

Strange how BBC is able to use their newsroom and studios normally during this whole period while CNN has made such a fuss over their workers returning.

Is it so hard to have some staff back to CNN London and do some shows from whatever set up they can come up with there? Same with NY.

Everyone is moving on and showing that IT IS possible to go back to how it was but CNN seems to want to drag on the whole Coronavirus drama as long as possible since it's been ratings gold for them.

Typical Zucker, the puppet master.....