For the third and final part of our year-end #AskNewser series, we caught up with several anchors and hosts across broadcast and cable news to find out what how they expect their shows will evolve in 2024.
To read part one of the 2023 year-end Q&As with network presidents, click here. For part two (TV newsers discuss overcoming on-air challenges), click here.
Those who provided their insights on how their respective shows will evolve include: ABC News chief Washington correspondent and This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl, as well as 20/20 co-anchor Deborah Roberts; CBS Face the Nation moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan along with streaming anchor and national correspondent Lilia Luciano; PBS NewsHour co-anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett; Fox News’ America’s Newsroom co-anchor Bill Hemmer, The Ingraham Angle Laura Ingraham, along with Fox Business hosts Liz Claman (The Claman Countdown) and Brian Brenberg (The Big Money Show); CNBC Squawk on the Street & Money Movers co-anchor Sara Eisen, Worldwide Exchange anchor, transports and tech correspondent Frank Holland; Bloomberg TV chief Washington correspondent and Balance of Power co-anchor Annmarie Hordern, Bloomberg Technology co-anchor Caroline Hyde; CNN Early Start & CNNI State of the Race host Kasie Hunt and Erin Burnett Outfront host Erin Burnett, NewsNation Banfield host Ashleigh Banfield NewsNation Now anchor Connell McShane; and Scripps News deputy political director Joe St. George.
TVNewser: How do you expect your shows will evolve in 2024?
Banfield: As my show is a true crime hour, the prospect of a trial being scheduled in 2024 for the suspect in the Idaho quadruple murders would change our format significantly. We would likely dedicate the majority of our real estate to covering that case… likely from Idaho.
Ashleigh Banfield
Bennett: I’m deeply grateful for the support from loyal NewsHour viewers as Amna [co-anchor Nawaz] and I assumed our roles as co-anchors of the program at the start of 2023. Following in the footsteps of Judy Woodruff, Gwen Ifill, Jim Lehrer, and Robert MacNeil is a great privilege. Looking to 2024, we’ll continue to build on the program’s near 50-year legacy with coverage and conversations that provide a deeper understanding of the people and issues shaping the world.
Geoff Bennett
Brenberg: I expect significant evolution in 2024. That just has to be the case with a new show. The ensemble format gives us so much upside in terms of unlocking our individual expertise and perspective, and then weaving it into an insightful, lively conversation. We love to be on the move—inside and outside the studio—and especially when it connects us with people on the frontlines in business, markets, politics, education, sports, and technology. I can’t think of a better time for a new show with a big vision to be hitting its stride.
Brian Brenberg
Brennan: We’re in a presidential campaign year, and we’ll look at the issues that will be on the President’s desk on day one. We’ll also have to cover the politics of the campaign trail in what is likely to be another tight election with the unusual dynamic of having a former president who is facing multiple indictments run against a sitting president juggling multiple domestic and international crises at once. The dynamic may be unprecedented but as we approach our 70th anniversary of being on the air in 2024, we at Face the Nation will do our best to uphold our decades-long legacy of top-notch journalism in order to help viewers understand America and the unusual state of our politics!
Margaret Brennan
Burnett: The world of news and media is obviously going through seismic change. The challenge is that no one exactly knows what the future holds in terms of consumption. So, the short answer is – I don’t know.
What I do know is that I love what I do and working every day with a team that is passionate to explore stories and loyal to each other makes my job a gift.
So, we’ll remain committed to stories we believe matter – stories like Ukraine, Israel and China and this historically monumental US election and more. And we’ll give everything we have to bring creativity to covering those stories because we believe distinct programming matters no matter where the media landscape settles.
Erin Burnett
Claman: As we gear up for the 2024 presidential election year, my commitment to delivering top-notch business news remains unwavering. The landscape no doubt will be politically charged, but my mission is crystal clear: to dissect the relationship between politics and the economy while providing our audience with hopefully insightful, unbiased coverage.
In the coming year, you can expect a nuanced evolution of the show as we delve into pocketbook issues, how each candidate plans to tackle them, their economic policies, market reaction, and how CEOs, business leaders and investors perceive them. We’ll dissect campaign promises, scrutinize economic agendas, and, perhaps most importantly, empower our viewers with the knowledge they need to navigate the financial landscape during this critical year, all with our signature stamp of originality and personality.
Liz Claman
Eisen: We’ve got a new show! Money Movers is on at 11 a.m. and the concept of the show is to stay laser focused on the drivers of the markets, and more importantly, the people who drive it. We’re focused on news-making interviews with executives, policymakers and investors. Interviews are my passion and I think we can really differentiate ourselves with this show by setting the table for the trading day with market-moving and agenda-setting interviews.
Sara Eisen
Hemmer: The entire year will build toward one event: the Presidential Election on November 5th. We will cover the candidates and the polling and all the sidebar stories, but I think the best thing we can do is speak to voters. They will reveal where America is today and where we are heading next. Our country can be a complex place, but it can also be very simple. And I can’t wait to learn from them.
Bill Hemmer
Holland: Our team is looking to be more visual with our presentation and bring in a wider range of executives and market guests. Our audience is always looking for deeper insights and new investing ideas.
Frank Holland
Hordern: I’m excited to join the Bloomberg Surveillance team in New York in 2024. It’s a program I’ve been a fan of for years, and have been lucky enough to contribute from around the world, including from Washington. It’s the smartest and most serious morning show on television, and I can’t wait to be a member of the show.
Annmarie Hordern
Hunt: State of the Race in particular will evolve as the 2024 presidential campaign evolves, and it’s likely to be an unprecedented one. Covering multiple trials isn’t typical in an election year. Still, I hope we’ll get to take the show to participate in campaign trail traditions like the conventions. On Early Start, we’ll continue to evolve with a new program name and a sharper politics focus for the campaign year – but hopefully also find our voice on culture and non-political news in a sharp, efficient way that the power morning audience demands.
Kasie Hunt
Hyde: With the AI hype, comes the reality – and 2024 will be the year AI is stress tested in application as well as business model. Will elections be protected, will regulations be applied, will revenue streams actually build? Bloomberg Technology will therefore continue to evolve with the story and showcase the newsmakers and analysis needed. I’m excited for the team to take time with our families and to get started again in the New Year.
Caroline Hyde
Ingraham: Since we launched The Ingraham Angle in the fall of 2017, we’ve tweaked and changed the show organically. But as a general matter, we routinely add new “regulars” to our stable of guests, take the show on the road to dig into what’s driving today’s voters, and include in-depth legal segments when the news merits. My own legal background will allow the Angle to dig deeper in our coverage of the Trump and Hunter Biden matters as they heat up. This presidential cycle — my 8th presidential election (!) — promises to be a wild ride, and we are wildly excited to cover and analyze it all.
Karl: As we approach this extraordinary political year, This Week will strive to do what we do best – interviewing America’s most interesting, important, inspiring and, occasionally, controversial political leaders and never hesitating to ask them the relevant or tough questions.
Jonathan Karl
Luciano: I hope all our media and news platforms commit to lowering the volume of the yelling and open up spaces for human stories to flourish and inspire. That we move away from faceless data and invest time and budgets in diving into individuals and the stories the data tell. Especially in an election year, I hope we are able to show that what brings us together is greater than what divides us and that we excavate and show the roots of the problems that we need to solve instead of offering a microphone to those who benefit from those problems never finding a solution. As a Latina, I hope to continue telling stories from Latin America and to show the forces which drive millions away from the beautiful mountains, valleys, beaches and rivers of their ancestors across treacherous journeys they didn’t wish to make. As well as the stories of how once they arrive into the U.S. and other communities across the region, they become an integral part of those economies.
Lilia Luciano
McShane: We’re new at this, so we’re constantly evolving. In 2024, though, it’s our election coverage that will be the biggest test. I think we’re ready for it. Book the best guests. Ask the hard questions. Tell the whole story. That’s the job. I couldn’t be more excited.
Connell McShane
Nawaz: We have another consequential election ahead. And we are focused on reporting on the stakes, the potential impacts on the audience we serve, and not just the race. We’ll evolve as we need to to meet the moment.
Amna Nawaz
Roberts: I’m hoping that 2024 brings even more enthusiasm and intrigue to the 20/20 franchise. This program has been going strong and captivating audiences for more than four decades and I am delighted to share the reins as co-anchor. I plan to bring my energies to a deeper partnership with David Muir, as we work to uncover the truth, and report on the most important and riveting stories of our time.
Deborah Roberts
St. George: We are going to keep evolving because we have to in this media environment. Here at Scripps News the strength is our local reporters, who live and work in the communities they cover. So many other news organizations rely on a D.C. correspondent parachuting into a market like Detroit, Milwaukee or Phoenix to tell a story. Here at Scripps News, we don’t need to parachute in because we have respected reporters already living in crucial swing states who are eager to contribute to our coverage and whose sourcing and expertise we both respect and amplify nationally.
I text with Charles Benson (a longtime political reporter at our station in Wisconsin) weekly about what’s happening in that swing state. Garrett Archer from our Phoenix station knows Maricopa County election data better than any network and usually has results on election night quicker than anyone. We are going to get them even more involved in 2024.
We will also evolve by recognizing 2024 will be unlike anything we have covered before. We can’t copy and paste coverage plans from 2020. We haven’t had a former president try to win his job back since 1940.
We have never had a president in their 80s seek reelection. Issues will come up that we can’t predict right now.
We also must be prepared to cover other political battles than just the race for president. Montana, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada Senate races are going to decide control of the Senate. We are in a unique position with our stations from Billings to Grand Rapids to cover those races like no one else.
I think many Americans are tired of the hyper-partisanship and political pundits yelling at each other. Many of the same Washington-based pundits all live within a few miles of each other.
2024 will be busy, but we will strive to stay calm, approach each issue that arises from an independent perspective and remember that the American electorate is complex and diverse with many Americans thinking about issues in ways that you might not hear at a cocktail party in D.C. or New York.
Joe St. George