CNN International & Domestic

Need a Friday laugh? SNL's Cheri Oteri as ground breaking journalist Barbara Walters (who co-hosted news magazine 20/20 for decades) on CNN's NYE special delivering a funny monologue. Mrs Walters is noted for her slight lisp and mid Atlantic accent, which Mrs Oteri has captured brilliantly. Anderson giggling and crying was hilarious. I love how Oteri calls Andy Cohen, Andrew and she call his late night talk show a think tank when in actuality to a messy, gabfest that mostly features Real Housewives and other Bravo personalities and other big name celebrities. (Andy is the co-creator and Exec Producers of the Housewives programmes) Cheri Oteri is sorely missed on SNL. She still has it.

John Berman in for Anderson Cooper AC360. Although not mentioned very often, I believe John is one of the better CNN anchors.
He has a nice and clear voice.

He's certainly one of those "always there" anchors on CNN. Despite already hosting New Day, he's still the main substitute anchor for AC360, then show up on weekends at times.

John is also one of those anchors who gels with everybody he works with: Zoraida Sambolin, Christine Romans, Michaela Pereira, Kate Bolduan, Poppy Harlow, and Alisyn Camerota all had or have good chemistry.

Sad news today, former CNN host Larry King died this morning aged 87

pic.twitter.com/x0Hl0X6vqU

— Larry King (@kingsthings) January 23, 2021

He and Alisyn Camerota are superb on New Day and such an improvement on the initial Cuomo/Boulduan pairing who are both particularly grating as anchors and never seemed to get on (whereas you can tell Berman and Camerota respect each other as colleagues).

Sad news about Larry King - a name synonymous with CNN. Thoughts with his friends and family.

Looks like CNN brought Wolf Blitzer to anchor CNN Newsroom right now (10am ET) to cover Larry King's passing.

Wolf and Larry were good friends apparently.

As CallumF mentioned in the Larry King thread. Smerconish as a show on CNN and also the man himself as a host seems so out of place in the schedule. I've never been a fan, and it really is a poorly produced show as CallumF pointed out.

I just wonder whether the as yet to be named Jim Acosta fronted show might replace it, or rather I'm hoping so.

That's exactly what I was hoping for - there's definitely room for CNN to produce distinct 'Saturday morning' programming as shown by the likes of the popular CNN/Muppets Town Halls and previously, personal finance and health shows.

The Smerconish show is just a bit of a mess - the graphics are all over the place and I wonder how they appear on screen while he can't seem to control the guests. I'm not too sure if it is produced by CNN or actually done by the team behind his talk radio show?

It's almost a radio show on tv. Asking Katherine to tell him the best tweets through his is super annoying. It's just a hour filler.

I'm sure Cristi Paul and Victor Blackwell wouldn't mind losing their hour of Newsroom having done 3 hours of New Day Weekend. I'm placing my bets Acosta's show will end up on Saturdays.

Here's Pamela Brown opening for the first time as a weekend anchor, while paying tribute to Larry King:

>> @PamelaBrownCNN debuting as a weekend evening anchor with an appreciation of Larry King:

"Like Larry, we're going to use our relentless curiosity on this show to drive the interviews and tell the stories you want to hear. So let's get started." pic.twitter.com/iH4eHMkASm

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 23, 2021