Soledad O’Brien And CNN Tell Gay Parenting Story For Next In America
CNN has looked at Black In America and Latino In America, but tonight the network and series takes on a new direction. The latest in it’s Soledad O’Brien-reported series is Gay In America – with the first installment telling a very specific, and personal, story.
We talked to O’Brien this week about the special, CNN’s expensive commitment, whether ratings matter and more.
Gary and Tony Have a Baby takes just one story of a gay couple looking to have a child through a surrogate and tells it from beginning to end. It’s a differentiating factor from past installments. “The survey pieces are a great way to cover a lot of ground, but the challenge is realizing you cannot tell every story,” O’Brien told Mediaite this week. “From a storytelling perspective it’s not the best way to tell the story but does cover a lot of ground. This particular story just tell a single theme.”
CNN continues to put the resources into the series, and it will continue to more in the Gay in America series and beyond. “I think CNN has been really good, a really big supporter of our In America unit,” said O’Brien. “We do stories under-covered in the media. We don’t tend to bump into a lot of people who are doing our stories.”
And while many will look at the ratings to judge the special’s success, O’Brien said that’s only part of the equation. “It both matters and it doesn’t,” she said. “The reality is if you only judge shows on ratings, truly only on what numbers you get, you cannot possibly program a network that way.”
During discussions both internally and externally (from the audience at Q&As), other possible subjects have emerged – Asian in America, Biracial in America, Pakistani in America. “We’re not in danger of running out of stories in the next 50 years,” said O’Brien.
• Related: Tom Shales, Washington Post: The doc is “poignant and captivating” and “offers an intimate and affecting portrait of what happens when partners in a same-sex marriage set out to secure for themselves a blessed event.”
The special premieres tonight at 8pmET. Check out the trailer below:
