Early Start, CNN This Morning and CNN News Central have officially bid goodbye to viewers accustomed to watching them in their respective time slots. This coming Monday, the network launches a new morning schedule.
As announced in early February by CNN chairman and CEO Mark Thompson, the morning hours of the network will look different due to the production of the early morning, morning and mid-morning dayparts now originating from CNN’s World Headquarters in Atlanta.
This shift in production resulted in the expansion of the Early Start with Kasie Hunt hours and the cancellation of the Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly-led CNN This Morning. Both of these shows were produced out of CNN’s New York offices.
Early Start is being renamed CNN This Morning and will air from 5 to 7 a.m. ET, and CNN News Central, which aired from 9 am to noon E.T, is being time-shifted to now air from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Following that, there will be two new DC-anchored shows, CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta at 10 a.m. ET and The Bulletin with Pamela Brown at 11 a.m. ET. Wolf Blitzer will be Brown’s interim anchor, filling in while she is on maternity leave.
Fun fact: Early Start has been on the CNN schedule since 2011 when Jim Walton was CNN’s chairman and Ken Jautz ran CNN/US. It was John Berman’s first show when he joined CNN in 2012.
Some exciting news! Starting Monday, Early Start will officially become CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt. @kasie will anchor weekdays from 5a-7a EST on CNN & CNN Max. A heartfelt thank you to all the staff that has helped get Early Start & CNN This Morning on the air every day. pic.twitter.com/6mxAKY3Q4s
— CNN Early Start with Kasie Hunt (@EarlyStart) February 23, 2024
CNN This Morning was Chris Licht’s attempt at jumpstarting CNN’s ratings during the morning hours, but the show’s tenure got off to a bumpy start and achieved more negative press than ratings wins. Harlow and Mattingly stabilized the program in recent months, but with Thompson looking to bring costs down for CNN’s linear operations, the changes persist.
2.23.24 A classy send off as CNN This Morning with @PoppyHarlowCNN and @Phil_Mattingly say their goodbyes. Only the best to them in their new roles pic.twitter.com/pv1cyWRcO6
— Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) February 23, 2024
CNN News Central, however, can be considered a Licht success story. The hard news program anchored by John Berman, Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan inherits a plum morning position, and its afternoon counterpart featuring the DC-based Brianna Keilar and Boris Sanchez has held on strong.
CNN News Central moves to 7a starting Monday. A revolution in morning TV!!!
To all those whom we have helped sell books, promote podcasts, or push to special programming, now is the time to returns the favor. We expect tens of retweets. pic.twitter.com/iQq9c4KmWk
— John Berman (@JohnBerman) February 23, 2024
Meanwhile, on this past Sunday’s evening edition of CNN Newsroom, Acosta informed viewers of his move to weekdays and showed off a bottle of wine given to him by former federal prosecutor Shanlon Wu, who had appeared on his show earlier.
And that’s a wrap for Jim Acosta @acosta on weekends !
Weekday anchoring for Mr. Acosta starts Monday, February 26th at 10 am pic.twitter.com/qMnMhVPhPl— Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) February 19, 2024