JNN: CNN

CNN Comments 23: CNN International Extra

Editor's Note: It was brought to my attention that the new "World Sport" host on CNNI is actually Don Riddell not "Don Rendall" or "Don Randell" as previously reported. JNN has corrected the body copy below. JNN regrets this error. (10.15.2002)

10.07.2002

This is an extra edition of JNN: CNN comments devoted to CNN International. Been getting a flood of information on CNN/US' sister network lately. I thought it would be a good time to get them out to you now rather than the end of the month. Enjoy!

By Svetlozar Aleksiev and Glen Burns

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Global Edition
"The Daily Show" is REALLY funny. When I first read about its launch on CNN International, I could not remember who Jon Stewart was. Several years ago my cable operator carried a Norwegian channel (I cannot recall its name) that aired a lot of U.S. TV shows in English with Norwegian subtitles. I remember watching "The Daily Show" and I believe CNNI made a good, in fact, excellent, addition to its programming. The first show was too short, indeed - a lot of commercials. However, I think the second was a bit longer. They were both great!

Germany Decides: Election Day Coverage
The day after "The Daily Show" came the German elections. CNN had amassed a huge team of journalists - Jonathan Mann, Chris Burns, Robin Oakley, Suzanne Kelly, Richard Quest (he anchored from Berlin Monday's BizNews) and Stephanie Halasz. However, one can honestly say that "Germany Decides 2002" - CNN International's election coverage - was an absolute failure. Oops, "absolute failure" is too strong, but surely that's what CNNI's management thought it was.

It's Sunday, 11:55 AM (ET.) Ralitsa Vassileva (in Atlanta) announces that "Germany Decides 2002" will be next on CNN International with Jonathan Mann, live from Berlin. You see Jonathan Mann staring in a monitor below the camera waiting to hear the promo clip ending due to the HUGE satellite delay. You see him say nothing and then CNN switches to Chris Burns from incumbent chancellor Schroeder's headquarters in Berlin. He profiles the chancellor and then turns to Jonathan Mann. Mr. Mann says 10 words, at most, and switches to n-tv's (n-tv, Germany's first news channel, is a joint venture with CNN) exit poll results.

Then... Bam!!! On the split screen, the live feed from Berlin goes black...

CNN carries n-tv's election results for a few minutes with on-air translation and then Ralitsa Vassileva starts commenting on them and virtually became the host of "Germany Decides." CNN International's election coverage consisted of reports from Chris Burns (as I said, from Schroeder's HQ) and Robin Oakley (in Munich, at Stoiber's headquarters.) CNNI also carried live statements from the leaders of the top four parties.

Around 90 minutes later, Ralitsa Vassileva switched back to Jonathan Mann saying they had a massive power outage (CNN's favorite deja vu) in Berlin, but it had been fixed. Jonathan Mann spoke for several minutes with the editor of a prominent German news magazine, while constantly notifying on air to CNN's Atlanta control room that he had lost contact with them in his earpiece. Then after another news conference Ralitsa Vassileva, again, started hosting the show. She did this for around 6 hours straight with just a few commercial breaks.

However, if you ask me, I would not define "Germany Decides" as a failure. Certainly, CNN wanted to have special guests in its Berlin bureau, but apparently the power outage was massive, indeed. I wonder what would happen if an outage like that (a massive one) occurs in Atlanta. Nevertheless, Ralitsa showed she was prepared to handle the difficult situation.

I would also like to point out that I hate live shows hosted from outside CNN's newsrooms. They are usually, if not always, desynchronized due to the large satellite delays. I prefer them to be hosted from, let's say Atlanta, featuring live reports from the countries themselves.

Daljit Dhaliwal/Michael Holmes - Team or Not?
I'm always skeptical - that's a quality deeply intertwined with my character. After a month or so of watching Daljit Dhaliwal, I can honestly say I'm not impressed - at all! Maybe she was good. Maybe she is good, according to somebody else. To me, she's nothing more than an ordinary anchor. I frankly hope she will change after getting more acquainted with the spirit of CNN International.

The information in her CNN.com biography is incorrect. She does not anchor "World Report." The only show she was on, apart from "World News," was "American Edition," filling in a few times for Jonathan Mann (due to his German assignment.) Now when we get to "World News"... she does not pronounce some names properly - of cities around the world, of world leaders, of CNN correspondents, etc. On the other hand, veteran CNNers pronounce her name perfectly well - something I doubted when she started getting on air. In addition, most of the time she sounds vainglorious. I hate when she says: "Rula Amin joins ME from Baghdad." On Friday (September 27), I think, I caught her saying "joins us" for the first time. Maybe her CNN chiefs reproved her. No other CNNI anchor says this... It sounds awful, as if the person she's interviewing had come because of her, not because of CNN's audience. Plus, most of her interviews are lackluster, and she continues to be irritatingly slow making me flip through the channels. I liked Jim Clancy in this slot - he speaks with passion, enthusiasm, and veteran authority (which he has!)

I'm also a little bit skeptical about her teaming up with Michael Holmes. He told Richard Quest a few weeks ago: "You'll never see me again," and indeed, he was backing up Jonathan Mann on "Insight" for more than a week, but he was back at the late night shift, teaming not with Daljit Dhaliwal, but with Richard Quest and Hala Gorani. What are you doing, CNN...?

Industrious Lou? Check out Richard Quest, Mr. Dobbs!
Yeah, yeah... once again at the top. Richard Quest will be starting a new show - "Business Traveller" - on CNN International. The promo says it will premier Sunday, October 13. This is his third after "BizNews" and "Business Central." Apparently Richard Quest will traveling around the world showing the best ways of enjoying business travel and the best places to stay in. Speaking of new shows, CNN's newest - "Design 360" - is one of my favorites these days. Hala Gorani really rocks!!! Plus, she's one of my favorite CNN hosts. [SA]

CNN International - Studio Changes
A new looking studio is in progress at CNN Centre, witch is expected to be put on the air during the new "Your World Today" programming.

1030 GMT World Sport - Who is that Guy?
Don Riddell was the former anchor for London Tonyght. Riddell does do segments during BizNews and gets up bright and early. Another addition is that two new anchors present London programming; one seems to be the replacement for Juanita Phillips. Tony Champion and Alison Bell (ITN) are the new names. That is CNN's second hiring from ITN in recent months, the other being Daljit Dhaliwal.

It's starting to looks like more and more presenters and programs are coming out of London than Atlanta! A rough count of how many news presenters there are in London: Richard, Tony, Hala, Liz, Becky, Fionula, Niki, Alison, Jane (unsure), Charles plus a few other ones! In Europe eight hours a day from London, 11 hours from Atlanta, the remainder from Hong Kong and New York.

Another note: "News Biz Today," the morning Asia program now has a sports segment from Candy Reid from the new sports studios in Atlanta three times during the show. I assume she then anchors the "World Sport" edition before and following "News Biz Today," which seems to indicate there maybe three different editions. It may be something that Don might end up with during "Biz News" if he can wake up early enough. Be interesting if the "Sports Updates" may return as a regular featured on CNN newscasts again.

Goodbye Q&A/Biz News shortened to Asia
It does not appear on advance schedules for CNN International when "Your World Today" begins.

Viewers to CNN Asia will lose two hours of "Biz News" to watch repeats of "Insight" and "World Report." It would be interesting to see who does the top and bottom of the hour news headlines to Asia (considering the Atlanta anchor is usually tied up with intro duties on "Biz News.")

Far from its heyday, Q&A was an interactive program that allowed viewers to connect to newsmakers. It has turned into a mere discussion type program with people who were far from newsmakers.

CNNNN
Is a classic Australian send up of US Cable News! ABC-TV has signed up the team from Australia's satirical newspaper The Chaser to make "CNNNN." "We Report You Believe" is one of many of its slogans. Their website is http://www.cnnnn.com/, which isn't as good as the show. The show itself is made like a real CNN with ads and all.

Ex-CNNer Spotted
Prue Lawarne - used to appear on CNN from London doing "World Business Today" has been recently spotted presenting Today's Business Europe on CNBC. She has worked for in the past since leaving CNN just about everyone including Bloomberg TV (US), DW-TV and the BBC. [GB]

Anchor Stories
Monday, September 30 - Wednesday, October 2

Friday, October 4, 2002

In Other News...

New Show
"Global Challenges" premieres October 13 -- a new program on how technology and people live together to overcome the challenging issues of our society. [SA]