CNN International & Domestic

....... and the award for the best looking home-made set goes to Hala Gorani. Not surprising I guess since her husband is a CNN photojournalist.






At least she will be back now, in a completely different slot though.



https://www.instagram.com/p/B-M-Z62BGt4/

I'm assuming the Hala Gorani TONIGHT branding is being dropped for a bit then.

I think we'll have to add a category for Best Newsreaders Living Room to the end of year awards.

I wonder is Sanjay Gupta getting any sleep or rest these days. Every time I switch on CNN at the moment he seems to be on, morning, noon and night.

Alisyn Camerota has been sent an 'at home' studio with backdrop and it really doesn't look bad at all.

This coverage has made me miss Maggie Lake. Julia Chatterley is dreadful - doesn’t provide the calm, measured reporting many others have done and seems to go for the more dramatic tone. She knows her stuff but can’t say she’s one of my favourite news/business anchors.

Former BBC World anchor Rico Hizon confirms he’s joined CNN. He’ll be anchoring for CNN Philippines.

Happy to be back home after 25 years and join the @cnnphilippines family - News You Can Trust! pic.twitter.com/zPTectiCNN

— Rico Hizon (@RicoHizon) March 27, 2020

Looks like Jake Tapper is also at a WFH arrangement with CNN's Coronavirus coverage backdrop.

Agreed. I don't get the whole flirty, chuckling thing she does all the time. Funnily enough, another business anchor, CNBC's Hadley Gamble does this sometimes too but she always treats the serious news seriously - she only does it to loosen up guests or tease them into answering a question - and it works.

Re programming, according to the EPG and a new trailer I've just seen, Connect the World reverts to a 60 minute format and is now broadcast on Fridays again. It is followed by 3 hours of CNN Newsroom which seems to replace the second hour of CTW, The Express and Hala Gorani Tonight however whether that is a temporary move for Covid-19 operations or not is not certain. As alluded to above, it would seem Hala Gorani will anchor it initally.

Not sure if those Newsroom editions following CTW are Interntional or Domestic though - the EPG descriptions seem to refer to US timings so they could well be yet more Domestic simulcasts so we’d end up losing another hour of international news around that time by losing the 2nd CTW hour. Did the trailer give a hint either way?

Though on a positive note, we do seem now to be back to a large block of Newsroom before New Day starts. The EPG has it running 6am-11am CET split by an hour of Amanpour at 7am. So if that block after CTW is International bulletins that would be a positive development.

CNN/US seem to have dropped Early Start at the moment, with extra simulcast CNNI Newsroom as it's replacement, hence the 'large block' before New Day

cnn.com is currently showing a 6 hour CNN Newsroom block 5am-11amUK. I can guess why the Amanpour repeat was put in last week at 5amUK, to provide resources for the extra later hours, but it had me turning straight over to CNBC (and by co-incidence, the hour co-presented by Hadley Gamble!). An interview show from 11 hours ago isn't an ideal Breakfast news show.

Rico is on.

he's back home, y'all ✊📺 @cnnphilippines pic.twitter.com/ku6eoBYdVd

— lee ; (@_leeseril) March 30, 2020