CNN News Live
Television’s first 24-hour all-news service, CNN stands for Cable News Network, Inc., a subsidiary of WarnerMedia. The headquarters of CNN are in Atlanta.
Ted Turner, a maverick broadcasting executive created CNN as part of his Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) because industry professionals had told him it could not be done. After four years in development with a news telecast, CNN signed on the air June 1, 1980, which is anchored by the husband-and-wife team of Dave Walker and Lois Hart. CNN endured an arduous struggle to earn respect in the broadcast world as initially derided by its more affluent competitors as “the Chicken Noodle Network” because of its comparatively meager financial resources. CNN maintained a loyal following and maturing and expanding along with the cable industry itself by offering what the major networks did not: full, continuous coverage of all news events, both large and small. Its mantra throughout this period was “Go live, stay with it and make it important.” CNN adopted a policy of banning such exclusionary words and phrases, endeavoring to accommodate its worldwide audience.
With its on-the-spot coverage of the Challenger space shuttle disaster, the network scooped the competition in 1986. With the live “in-country” telecasts of the Persian Gulf War, CNN News Live again trumped the other networks after five years.
CNN’s team of correspondents covering the battle from both sides of the conflict including Bernard Shaw, Peter Arnett, and John Holliman — became familiar faces. Also, Daniel Schorr, Wolf Blitzer, Catherine Crier, Mary Alice Williams, Christiane Amanpour, and Paula Zahn were included by other prominent CNN reporters and commentators.
CNN offered a steady diet of daily and weekly prime-time series, beginning with Moneyline in addition to its news broadcasts and continuing with such efforts as Crossfire, Evans and Novak, and The Capitol Hill Gang. The nightly Larry King Live hosted by Larry King and long one of CNN’s most popular series was also for a number of years cable television’s highest-rated interview program.
Anderson Cooper 360°and The Situation Room are the most-recent staples of CNN programming. The channel started adding documentary and reality television programs to its schedule in 2013, notably Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2013–18), an award-winning travel show hosted by former chef Bourdain.
Along with the rest of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1996, CNN was absorbed by entertainment conglomerate Time Warner Inc. (later called WarnerMedia).
History of CNN
At 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on June 1, 1980, The Cable News Network was launched. The channel’s first newscast was anchored by the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored, after an introduction. The executive vice president of CNN, Burt Reinhardt, hired most of the channel’s first 200 employees at its launch, including the network’s first news anchor, Bernard Shaw.
On January 1, 1982, a companion channel, CNN2, was launched and featured a continuous 24-hour cycle of 30-minute news broadcasts. Later the channel became CNN headline News and is now known as simply HLN.
In 1999, a Spanish language 24-hour television news channel, CNN+ (CNN Plus) was launched as a joint venture by Soge cable and Turner Broadcasting.
