Drama and Controversy at CNN This Morning is — Unintentionally — Making It Must Watch Cable News
A divided nation appears to have united in condemning Don Lemon’s regrettable commentary about Nikki Haley, her age, and when women are in their “prime.”
This morning’s debacle — read all about it here — was not the first time CNN’s newly-launched breakfast show CNN This Morning invited the wrong kind of attention or a healthy amount of criticism. This, too, will blow over (Lemon has already issued a statement apologizing), but it remains just another example of something that has been gnawing at me for a week.
The newest cable news morning show, through controversy on and off the air, has become must-watch television.
Cable news is a tough game, made even tougher by the decline of linear television and the rise of cord-cutters reliant on streaming. And so when new CNN CEO Chris Licht announced the new morning show lineup featuring Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins, it was a big deal.
Licht selection of these three co-hosts was seen as a smart play, as the trio are among the most popular personalities on the network. Harlow hails from Minnesota, while Lemon and Collins grew up in Louisiana and Alabama, respectively. All have successfully maintained a level of real American “virtue” or groundedness that’s long been a hallmark of Fox News personalities but is sometimes missing from the Ivy League grads that populate CNN and MSNBC shows.
The show launched with an impressive array of guests, notably of the Republican politician variety. I wrote a column in May of last year that argued Licht’s biggest priority in taking over CNN was to get reasonable members of the GOP back on its airwaves, and nowhere has this been more evident than CNN This Morning.
The show is tough but fair. A great example was Collins politely chiding her guest Senator Rick Scott’s repeated citing of CNN’s Jake Tapper over his proposal to sunset Social Security, shooting back, “I don’t think that’s the defense you think it is. ” And just for fun the next day, Tapper came on the show for a light-hearted pile-on.
There have also been more awkward moments. The Collins interview with House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer prompted an uncomfortable moment after in which Lemon felt obligated to call out what Comer had just said. The moment came close to appearing like Lemon was calling out Collins, and prompted Harlow to repeatedly insist that their co-host had conducted an impressive interview.
That segment happened amid reports of tension on the set. Page Six reported Lemon was frustrated with Collins interrupting him on a December 8 episode, a tense moment we dug up. It’s kind of uncomfortable to watch but added to the growing intrigue of CNN This Morning.
Which is why I think the show is on to something. Sure, it can occasionally be not quite train-wreck-ish but awkward. Though not in a way that compels viewers to change the channel. Rather, it’s a genuinely unscripted dialog between well-informed individuals sharing different opinions. Which, in today’s hyper-siloed slate of cable news programming, is remarkably rare!
Take, for example, the show’s debate about US Soccer men’s and women’s teams and how they got paid, which happened during December’s World Cup. The conversation was, at times, terse and spicy but never disrespectful. Not everyone was an expert on the issues being discussed. Still, it felt like a real-life debate among friends and family, and not just the overproduced and performative fare one sees on other cable outlets in which everyone agrees.
Each co-host of CNN This Morning offers something unique. Lemon is fearless in sharing what he really believes, to the degree that it sometimes gets him in trouble. Remember when some thought he was conservative because he had the temerity to call out kids whose pants are sagging? Seems like forever ago.
Collins is a whip-smart reporter, seen as a rising star at the network, who seems to have everyone on Capitol Hill on speed dial. She breaks stories so often that she has had to phone in interviews on prime time to cover her exclusives. How many other cable news hosts are regularly scooping the field? She is relatively new to hosting on cable news and is partnered with Lemon, who is accustomed to hosting solo shows, a pairing that has not been without hiccups. Harlow, an experienced host used to sharing the anchor desk, has proven the crucial glue to the whole mix. Without Poppy, one gets the sense the show could derail at any moment, but it doesn’t.
Getting big ratings for a newly launched cable news morning show is like rolling a boulder up a mountain. It takes forever, and you’re never quite sure you’ll get there. And ratings so far for the new show have been, ahem, less than impressive, but executives seem to know that its a thousand-mile journey of which they’ve only just begun.
But while CNN This Morning has received a few less-than-charitable headlines of late, it’s also getting well-deserved buzz. Well-deserved because the show often surprises viewers with great interviews, exclusive reports, and, yes, some disastrous backs and forths between hosts.
You can chalk some of this up to growing pains, but growing pains are fun to watch! To paraphrase the inartful thoughts of an ESPN pundit: I feel bad for our industry. But this is tremendous content.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
