Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Tuesday, June 13th, 2023
If I ran CNN
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, June 13th, 2023.
IF I RAN CNN
I have been extremely critical - perhaps brutally so - about the changes that have taken place at CNN since the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Vague talk about becoming "non-partisan," awkwardly executed programming moves and a sense that no one at WBD seems to know what to do in order to move the network in the proper direction. All of which has led to a substantial loss of viewers, especially in primetime. Who could have guessed that audiences would not respond positively to a haphazard mix of interviews, roundtables and town halls?
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has said in interviews that he wants CNN to be broader than politics and sports. "We must get it right" at CNN, and "this is no going to happen overnight." So what does that mean? More pop culture programming? Scripted shows in primetime? Live clog-dancing? We don't know and if Zaslav any specific thoughts on the matter, he hasn't shared them publicly.
But what veiled comments Zaslav has made make it sound like CNN is being reimagined as a more general interest/news channel. And given that desire, hiring Chris Licht to oversee the network must have felt as if it was a safe and strategic move. But with now him out of the picture, where does that leave CNN?
Leaning in to a more general interest editorial mix has never made any sense to me, given the myriad of other channels WBD owns that cover some of this same ground. It feels as if they are admitting that despite their previous goal of turning CNN into a center-right non-partisan alternative, they've ultimately decided that it too hard or not worth the effort. Instead, the network is going to try and retain some core hard news capabilities while expanding the lens of stories that will be covered. As well as expanding the type of voices that appear on the network.
All of this is being done against a backdrop of management's desire to cut spending. There have already been some layoffs at CNN, accompanied behind a healthy dose of overall belt-tightening. So the mandate from Zaslav and the rest of his Scooby gang seems to two-fold. Completely make over the network, while also cutting budgets and eliminating resources.
As you might suspect - especially if you ever took a high school economics class - retooling a business while simultaneously cutting resources is a fool's errand. In the end, you inevitably end up not cutting as much as you planned from the budget, while also rolling out a new look that suffers from being starved for resources.
But I have spent some time thinking about what I would do if I was asked to run CNN and it's an interesting thought experiment.
I do think there is a lane for CNN is to be the alternative to Fox News and MSNBC. But that alternative is not to attempt to be "non-partisan." In part, because no one seems to be able to define what that looks like other than adding more conservative voices to the on-camera mix.
I believe that the future for CNN is to look back at what made it successful in the early days. And that was the network's outsider status.
CNN began its life in Atlanta and that was where it was headquartered for the first couple of decades of its life. A lot of the anchors and reporters were from outside the Beltway, although to be honest, that was as much a budgetary decision as an editorial one. But in those early years, CNN felt different because it was centered outside of the normal cable news business. Being in Atlanta made the network feel more Middle America, less just another East Coast big media outlet.
I would do as much as possible to harken back to those days. Move towards doing a live two-hour morning show from Chicago and follow that up with another two hours live from Denver or Phoenix. Begin dropping those paid political commentators whose best political expertise is that they used to work in the White House or on a few national campaigns. Aggressively move towards discovering new local and regional voices. Lessen the amount of airtime spent on endlessly rehashing "breaking" political news from yesterday and use CNN's national and international resources to discover regional and local stories bubbling just below the radar of the national press.
The current primetime schedule is the hardest problem to crack without a lot of additional resources. But one way of building that out on the cheap is to use an hour or two of pre-prime space as a workshop for new talent. Give them one directive: "See how Rachel Maddow reinvented what it means to be a primetime news anchor? What would you do to make this format your own?" It's not about having the liberal approach of Maddow. It's about rethinking what a CNN news program should look like. Maybe it's rebooting a variation of Crossfire. Maybe it's developing a political news-driven variation on Pardon The Interruption. Do some test shows internally and then roll out the best ones onto that early prime timeslot. CNN needs a show or two that can create a buzz in a positive way and this is the most cost-effective and least painful way to do it.
If I ran CNN, I would approach it as if I were running a start-up news channel rival with very limited resources. Try crazy stuff, innovate in ways that no one else would greenlight. If the new CNN looks like no other news channel, then the partisan complaints will fade. Or at least, there will be a similar level of complaints from both sides, which is essentially the same thing.
And no matter what, don't send your anchors to do some live remote just because every other network is doing it. It's expensive and it doesn't bring value to the viewer or the network. If you are going to spend the resources on a live shot, make it one that no other network is bothering to do.
The best way to turn CNN around is to strip it back down to the studs and build it for today's audience.
READER FEEDBACK
In Friday's Too Much TV newsletter, I asked readers for their thoughts about CNN and their ideas on what they might do if they ran the network. Here is just a sample of what I received over the weekend. If you have some thoughts, send them along to rick@allyourscreens.com
"The perennial knock on CNN -- and all broadcast & cable news operations -- is that they aren't built to operate in a world where the vast majority of people consume news digitally.
With linear television going the way of the dinosaur, CNN has no choice but to pivot to digital, but they're mercifully already starting with a leg up. CNN.com is the 6th most trafficked site in the world and the #1 most trafficked news site, w/ nearly 700 million monthly visitors. They were moving in the right digital direction w/ CNN+ but not with the right idea...
As soon as Elon Musk bought Twitter and the social media network began its rightward lurch -- filled with disinformation and hate speech -- millions of users have been looking for an alternative, but none has existed.
Why not reconceive CNN+ as a social media news aggregator -- essentially a wire news service meets TikTok. CNN could use its massive global operation to dish out news in Twitter/TikTok sized-morsels -- morsels that link back to CNN.com, the CNN linear channel, and the inevitable streaming platform. Users create profiles to scroll and consume, but also to post thoughts and reactions themselves. Journalists from competing platforms can also join as users to hawk their scoops, stories, and opinions. You could say these competitors would be cannibalizing their own audience -- but they've already been doing that on Twitter for years, and have come to believe that the traffic Twitter drives to their home sites is worth it.
Taking a page from the New York Times' glow-up from a storied newspaper to a 360 lifestyle brand, the CNN app could house in-house and user-generated news content that includes cooking/entertainment/fashion/etc. And as it does, it'll position itself as a centrist and safe alternative to Twitter on the one hand, and as a geopolitically less toxic version of TikTok on the other.
Just as those sites have had to navigate the treacherous waters of content moderation, so too would CNN, but since their bread and butter is news, they have a little bit more philosophical leeway when it comes to removing content, placing warnings, fact-checking, etc."
--Matthew
"I would have the evening line-up as:
7PM EST = Kaitlan Collins
8PM EST = Anderson Cooper
9PM EST = Erin Burnett
10PM EST = Alisyn Camerota
11PM EST = Laura Coates
I know they're not going to undo Licht's decision to put Kaitlan at 9PM, but even when it was first announced it seemed more sensible to me to start her off a bit earlier in the night. Burnett's been at 7PM EST for over 10 years and has earned the promotion to 9PM EST if she wants it. From watching her show I have no idea what her political leanings are, so I think her balanced approach would work in the slot.
Camerota and Coates had their show together last fall and I thought they both did really well, was surprised when they gave Camerota 2 hours but no show for Coates.
For the Trump indictment, I've been impressed the last few days that usually-pro-Trump commentators like Scott Jennings have been horrified by it. If that holds, I think it'll be a good balance against the super-pro-Trump commentators."
--Dave
"The problem with CNN is that they seem to think non-partisan means that you just find guests from both sides and everyone will be happy. Letting Jim Jordan prattle nonsense for ten minutes in defense of Donald Trump isn't non-partisan. It's journalistic malpractice."
--Angie
ODDS AND SODS
* The Disney Channel has renewed the animated series The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder for a third season. It has also renewed Spidey & His Friends for a fourth season.
* Penske Media Corporation is launching a new woman's heath web site named Flow. A name which is weirdly unsettling.
WHAT'S NEW FOR WEDNESDAY:
* Assembled: The Making of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (Disney+)
* How Do You Measure A Year? (Max)
* Our Planet II (Netflix)
* Save My Skin Season Premiere (TLC)
* Small Town Potential Series Premiere (HGTV)
* Superstar: Aaliyah (ABC)
* Temptation Island Season Premiere (USA)
* The Big D Series Premiere (USA)
* The Full Monty Series Premiere (Disney+)
* The Surrogacy (Netflix)
* The Wonder Years Season Premiere (ABC)
Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.
SEE YOU WEDNESDAY!
If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.