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Saturday, June 2, 2012

This Weekend's Programming 6/2/12

SATURDAY, June 2, 2012

SANJAY GUPTA, MD – Saturday 4:30PM – 5:00PM
Dr. Sanjay Gupta duels with Dr. Marcy Zwelling, a critic of California's proposed new cigarette tax and talks with Lori Bremner, an American Cancer Society volunteer about Prop 29.

THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER – Airs Saturday 6:00PM – 7:00PM
Topic: Obama’s birth certificate, Mitt Romney
Guest: Donald Trump
Topic: Political Wrap
Guest: Ron Brownstein
Anchor: Wolf Blitzer

SUNDAY, June 3, 2012


SANJAY GUPTA, MD – Sunday 7:30AM – 8:00AM
Dr. Sanjay Gupta duels with Dr. Marcy Zwelling, a critic of California's proposed new cigarette tax and talks with Lori Bremner, an American Cancer Society volunteer about Prop 29.

STATE OF THE UNION WITH CANDY CROWLEY – Airs LIVE Sunday 9:00AM – 10:00AM and NOON
Topics: Virginia as a Battleground State; 2012 Politics; Jobs; Economy
Guest: Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA), Republican Governors Association Chair
Topics: Bipartisanship; 2012 Politics; Senate Agenda; Jobs; Economy
Guest: Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN)
Guest: Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA)
Topics: Politics and the Economy; May Job Numbers
Guest: Mark Zandi, chief economist, Moody's Analytics
Anchor: Candy Crowley

FAREED ZAKARIA GPS – Airs Sunday 10:00AM – 11:00AM and 1:00PM – 2:00PM
Topics: Advising Team Romney: how would he deal with the debt and the deficit? Will he cut taxes? How? Where? Will he cut spending? How? Where? Is austerity the answer? What IS Mitt Romney’s economic philosophy?
Guest: R. Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School; former chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors (George W. Bush Administration); adjunct scholar, American Enterprise Institute; Romney campaign senior economic advisor. A Fareed Zakaria GPS Exclusive.
Topics: Syria: will President Assad survive the current crisis? Is military intervention imminent? What’s the endgame?
Guest: Fawaz Gerges, Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Topics: How nations can remain competitive and why the United States is slipping
Guest: Michael Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor of Harvard Business School
Anchor: Fareed Zakaria

Diamond Jubilee: Riverboat Pageant – Airs LIVE Sunday 11:00AM – 1:00PM (re-airs Monday 1:00AM)
**Pre-empts Reliable Sources this week**
Live from London, CNN will globally televise the spectacular pageantry of the Diamond Jubilee, marking Queen Elizabeth’s 60 year reign of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. CNN’s special live coverage will be anchored by Piers Morgan and Brooke Baldwin, across CNN/U.S. and CNN International. CNN’s live simulcast coverage begins on Sunday, June 3, from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. (ET) on location at the Tower Bridge for the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. Hundreds of boats will sail up the River Thames, making it one of the largest flotillas ever assembled on the river.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to upcoming changes at CNN and to see how weekend programming will shape up with the upcoming Anthony Bourdain program. More changes to be announced of course. CNN should move Piers Morgan to weekends to host "CNN Interviews" a show without his name in the title. It might help. It doesn't look like they will release him anytime soon. Have a new interview every Sunday with a Saturday repeat like Anthony Bourdain. Rename State Of The Union to something else. It gets confusing when the real State of the Union address approaches. Rename CNN Newsroom to "The News". It's simple and sweet. Since the new Atlanta studio launched two years ago, the show no longer is broadcast from the actual newsroom. Have Wolf Blitzer host "The Command Center", once the new Washington studio launches soon. Have it air as the lead in for Anderson Cooper. Have Anderson host "CNN360º". I think it would be better to not include a hosts name in the show title. Move "OutFront" to 11PM. It doesn't look like CNN plans to get rid of Erin Burnett either. Funny thing is, her shows ratings have gone up lately. Have Soledad O'Brien host a new, pundit free show at 9PM. Have John Berman and Brooke Baldwin host "CNN Morning". Zoraida Sambolin is too boring, so is Suzanne Malveaux who is better as a political correspondent. Same with John King. He is better at also appearing with the Magic Wall throughout the day on CNN. Have a 360º repeat at 10PM or bring back NewsNight but with Tom Foreman maybe? Move Don Lemon to weekdays, have Alino Cho take over weekend prime. She did great last weekend!

Anonymous said...

I'm taking a break from CNN TV until the conventions begin. Hopefully by then, programming will have altered for the better. In the meantime, I'll get my non-pundit news from the CNN app or website.

Anonymous said...

Anon 2:35,
You got some good ideas. I agree, Morgan shoukd go to the weekend. Berman and Baldwin sound good for morning. I kinda think Burnett should move to the morning as well but at least putting her on later a night means I can avoid her easily. Yes, this last week she has bumped up a bit in the ratings. But after the month she's just had, isn't one week of improved ratings just a dead cat bounce. I'm not convinced it will hold. She needs to improve significantly and sustain it longer than a week. It doesn't really what she does now, CNN management is holding on to her. For the life of me, I can't figure out why. Every time she pops up on Blitzers program I have to turn the channel. Her economic analysis is shallow, banal, and too often political. You could drown her financial knowledge in a puddle.

I like the idea of a Soledad & Foreman evening newscast. Soledad really is a good interviewer and anchor but she is beseiged by pundits in the morning. Its unfortunate really.

Anonymous said...

@2.35am
I also think you've got some interesting ideas there. Your suggestions should, in my opinion, be only the first phase of changes. The faces of CNN are, of course, very important to viewers and that should be the first and immediate change. The second phase would be a longer one, it would take at least a year to see some significant difference from today.

That phase should be focused on content, i.e. on "depunditization" of CNN. My view is that CNN should return to its roots and start reporting the news again and stop just talking about it from political perspective. That's an expensive business and it requires more journalists. If they get rid of at least half the pundits, that could in itself leave some budget for new hires in the newsroom. Of course, they should pump in some new money for additional people.

What these people should do is run around the country and simply report what's happening. There are hundreds and thousands of stories waiting to be told all around America. Not all of them, in fact most of them are not strictly political in a sense that Washington daily politics is involved somehow. Just one example of a big story is the economy which is generally not doing good - CNN should report about how people are coping with it from various aspects in different states. It's different when a certain "local" story, but a nationally relevant one, is reported by CNN's journalist than by a local affiliate. Then there are other areas of people's daily lives, from culture and sports to corrupt officials and various social issues. CNN should report on all of these.

Each and every story can be, but it doesn't need to be strictly political and CNN should insist that not every story needs to be told from Washington beltway perspective.

I was talking to a couple of friends and we all agreed that if NPR can do it, than CNN should be able to do it as well. I didn't hear about NPR's ratings for their main news shows going down recently, have you?

When this second phase starts rolling, the hosts and time slots will become less important. Viewers will get to know the new (or old) CNN and they'll start watching it for stories it brings, not for a cute face in a high tech studio.

Competing with FNC and MSNBC in political talk simply doesn't make sense if CNN doesn't want to take sides or bring in hosts that openly take sides. The news should become CNN's star once again, that's my point.

Anonymous said...

ANON2:35AM: I too agree you have great ideas. Very simple and sweet! Hopefully someone at CNN can see your suggestions or perhaps you can email them.

Anonymous said...

Anon @12:39am,
I think you explained the situation PERFECTLY. CNN needs to reconnect with their audience in a real way and it is NOT about sparkly personalities. CNN has the resources to do exactly what you are talking about - get people all across the country, the world even, and discuss what is going on at the grassroots level. I am so sick and tired of everything being from the ivory tower of Washington DC and New York city. They make everything political. Plus all the economic talk is from a Wall Street perspective. I have always thought NPR was a great model. I have read a lot lately about how NPR is doing. Truth is they are having some financial troubles because corporate underwriting is declining. HOWEVER, their listenership ratings puts CNN's viewership to shame. They have enormous reach and participation but monetizing it has been difficult. Let me put it this way, Morning Edition (npr's regular morning news show) is over 7 million which kicks the pants off the Today show. We all know how well CNN competes with morning broadcast news (in case you don't know, CNN gets 300k and Broadcast news gets about 5 million average week). Imagine combining NPR's ability to report news with CNN's resources - what an amazing journalistic juggernaut that would be!

Getting rid of mindless pundits is critical. Who are all these people? They are inside the beltway hacks and money grubbers from Wall street investment firms. You would think CNN doesn't know anyone between the american coasts. This is why I have found CNN's recent hires to be so bad and most importantly, out of touch with regular people. Spitzer is NY gov, Parker a well known Washington Post Columnist, Morgan was an obnoxious Brit on a reality show, and the final insult is Burnett who was a CNBC poptart who moonlighted as Trump's assistant in a reality show who has a reputation for being an OUTSPOKEN advocate for Wall Street. Really, CNN, who thought she would connect economic issues to most Americans? SHE CAN'T!!! I wonder if CNN even knows who their audience is anymore. Are they just gonna be like CNBC and say openly and honestly that we are the news providers of the wealthy and influential? At least CNBC is honest about it - they rather pretentiously claim that they cater to those who watch in the boardrooms and country clubs. CNBC doesn't care about ratings because the ratings don't include enough rich people. Is that now CNN? I always hoped they were for the masses. News important to regular folks. The sources for information about the world accessible to everyone. Perhaps we are all wrong.

You guys are right, it is about content. A pretty face on a bad show is still a bad show. I love NPR and they grab me with great stories all around the world. Their reporters are fair, smart, compassionate, modest, and humble. CNN is becoming a station of obnoxious, smack talkin', privileged, primadonnas. That is why people are tuning out. At least Fox and MSNBC go to where their audience is and talks about things that their audience wants to know about. Is it partisan and opinion oriented? Yes, but you know what you are getting into and sometimes it is informative and entertaining. But it is not always the best source of balanced hard news. CNN could fill that role, but they are not. It is not like they deliver a serious product and people just don't want to hear serious things. The problem is that they are delivering crap and we all know it. I still have hope that one day they will listen to us.