CNN+ announced on Thursday that it was ceasing operations at the end of the month. However, Brian Stelter and Kasie Hunt, both of whom host daily shows on the subscription streaming service, announced Friday’s episode (April 22) would be the final one for each of them.
Puck News founding partner Matt Beloni appeared on the final episode of Stelter’s daily media analysis show Reliable Sources Daily, and at one point, humorously remarked, “I think I’m making history right now. I’ve never been on a program talking about the demise of that program.”
Stelter responded, “Well, we probably have more viewers now than ever before, because of the curiosity!”
Beloni said that CNN+ just didn’t really mesh with what the new management for Warner Bros. Discovery wants to do. “The Discovery people had experience with niche streaming services, with Discovery Golf and other things like that, and they did not have success there,” said Beloni. “I think the vision is just very different. They [Warner Bros. Discovery management] love the CNN brand. If you talk to David Zaslav, the CEO, he goes on and on about how great the CNN brand is, and how it’s the standard bearer worldwide. It’s not a matter of not loving CNN, it’s a matter of the strategy being different on how to transition CNN into the digital age.”
“I think I’m making history right now. I’ve never been on a program talking about the demise of that program.”
Thank you, @MattBelloni, for contributing to the final episode of “Reliable Sources Daily.” pic.twitter.com/NcWO57OkrP
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 22, 2022
Later in the day, Hunt concluded her 4 p.m. CNN+ show, The Source, by thanking her staff and telling viewers, “they [The Source staff] kept working while I recovered from brain surgery earlier this year.”
“TV really is a team sport, and the very best team made this show,” Hunt added. “The journalists, the technicians behind the cameras, they poured their hearts and souls into this. They left stable jobs, some of them moved across the country. They all took a huge risk to cover this story with me.
If you’re hiring journalists, they are the best in class…”
>> @Kasie praising her team while signing off CNN+: “They poured their hearts and souls into this. They left stable jobs. Some of them moved across the country. They all took a huge risk…” pic.twitter.com/545FVbVQ0K
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 22, 2022