Kasie Hunt has long been known for her work in politics, but in the coming days she hopes people will think of her when it comes to cultural news, sports, and maybe the weather. When the news cycle throws up something strange or surprising, the CNN morning news anchor says she’s “even willing to get a laugh on air.”
Cable news programming has thrived in recent years on a relentless focus on politics, and now CNN and Hunt want to confuse viewers’ perceptions by expanding the network’s reach. “We want to be there for them even when politics isn’t leading the way,” Hunt said in a recent interview.
Those who tuned in to Hunt’s Monday morning “CNN This Morning” show — which now bears her name in the title — may have noticed some new elements on the screen, especially starting at 6. The new blue and yellow graphics echo the screen tones of “Good Morning America” or “Today.” The 6 a.m. hour opened with a panel of three people gathered around a round table strewn with current newspapers, all to discuss the latest ups and downs in the presidential campaigns of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
CNN has tried many times to bolster its morning broadcasting efforts, often unsuccessfully. The network has long struggled to outcompete its early-morning competitors, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.” In 2013, CNN installed a new trio of anchors — Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira — as a challenger to the burgeoning “Today.” That show, “New Day,” quickly transformed after President Trump’s election into a forceful, aggressive program that sought to hold politicians accountable for lies and misinformation. CNN recently tried to launch a more broadly focused morning show led by Poppy Harlow, Kaitlan Collins and Don Lemon, but it failed to generate the chemistry among the anchors that is so essential to the format.
Hunt is adding a new strategy to her wake-up time by focusing on 6 a.m.—the hour that typically doesn’t bring the biggest TV audience, but rather the most engaged viewers, who are up early and ready to absorb the important information of the day. Although she has long covered campaigns and Capitol Hill, she says, “We’re not just a morning show for politics. It seems to me that there’s room for a more inclusive, clear-eyed, nonpartisan platform for political news, hard news, international news, and other things that come out in the morning.”
Hunt is poised to offer the latest nuances of the 2024 White House race or new information from Ukraine, but she might also delve into stories about Taylor Swift or the advisability of swimming in the Seine River in France. Expect segments about things she enjoys, like baseball and the Baltimore Orioles, or interesting videos that seem to have captivated digital audiences. Hunt expects to draw on the expertise of Bleacher Report, the sports outlet owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, and hopes the show will have a regular weather personality.
“If people are talking about it,” Hunt says, she will move the topic to a new roundtable where guests will talk to each other instead of staring into the camera.
She also plans to build an “extended family” of commentators who will appear regularly. Viewers of her show will likely have already noticed Michael Smerconish appearing late in the week to promote his Saturday show, or analysis from David Axelrod, Katie Bedingfield, Jonah Goldberg or David Frum.
CNN executives have long coveted the viewers who tune in to “Morning Joe,” a show that draws White House goers and political enthusiasts but sometimes veers into topics outside Washington, D.C. Hunt knows the show well; before coming to CNN, she was part of the extended Joe family, hosting MSNBC’s “Way to Early,” which served as a precursor to Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist.
“I have so much respect for my competitors,” says Hunt, who often speaks as if she is considering a new career as executive producer. “Mika has been an incredible mentor, and I owe so much of my career to her. This show will be around as long as these two women want it to be around, and it will always be an important platform. My goal is to work hard and do everything I can. This will be a different show with a different person.”
Even trying to replicate the Scarborough roundtable would leave CNN short. The network can quickly get viewers anywhere in the world thanks to its newsgathering resources, meaning Hunt is likely to have reporters stationed around the world even if she goes on the air early in the day.
CNN also appears to be digging into an old book. For more than two decades, the company has found a strong appeal with a morning show that tackles hard news and silly stuff — and it has done so from a base outside the traditional New York City morning programming. “Morning Express,” HLN’s morning show hosted by Robin Meade, played well with audiences in the Midwest and South, and CNN at times considered bringing its host to New York (Meade wasn’t keen on such a move). CNN unceremoniously canceled the long-running show in 2022 as part of its initial cuts under Warner Bros. Discovery, nullifying years of goodwill with critical viewers across the country.
Hunt, who first joined CNN in 2021 after a successful stint at NBC News, says she doesn’t just need to deliver headlines to viewers. “I spend a lot of time thinking about the morning audience,” she says. “I become part of their daily lives and routines in a very unique way. I really appreciate that people are willing to let me into their space. It’s not like you’re in the background in the office.”
She also believes that audiences want more personality — and authenticity — from news anchors at a time when technology is usurping many roles once held by humans. Viewers, she says, want “to know that there’s a real person on the other end, and that everything is going to be more important, not less.” All of this puts more pressure on her to stand out at the start of the CNN day.
