Kasie Hunt has long been known for her work on the political beat, but in days to come she hopes people will think of her for news about culture or sports, maybe the weather. When the news cycle delivers something weird or surprising, the CNN early-morning anchor says she is even “willing to make faces on the air.”
Cable’s A.M. news shows have thrived in recent years by focusing relentlessly on politics, Now CNN and Hunt want to scramble viewers’ perceptions by widening the network’s aperture. “We want to be there for them even when politics is not the lead,” says Hunt during a recent interview.
People who tuned in to Monday’s “CNN This Morning,” the program Hunt anchors between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. — now with her name in the title — may have noticed a few new elements on screen, particularly starting at 6. New blue-and-yellow graphics echo the on-screen tones of a “Good Morning America” or “Today.” The 6 a.m. hour opened with a three-person panel clustered about a round table strewn with current newspapers, all to discuss the latest ups and downs of the presidential campaigns of former President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
CNN has tried many times to boost its A.M. efforts, and not often successfully. The network has long struggled to beat its early-hours competition, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.” In 2013, CNN positioned a new trio of anchors – Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira — as a rival to the heyday of “Today.” That show, “New Day,” was quickly transformed after President Trump was elected into a punchy, aggressive program that sought to hold politicians accountable for perceived mistruths and disinformation. CNN more recently tried to mount a morning program with a broader focus led by Poppy Harlow, Kaitlan Collins and Don Lemon that failed to generate the anchor chemistry that is so critical to the format.
Hunt brings a new strategy to wake-up time by focusing on 6 a.m. — an hour that typically brings not TV’s biggest audience, but rather viewership that is more engaged, up early and ready to ingest information that is critical to the day. Though she has long covered campaigns and Capitol Hill, “we are not a politics-only morning show,” she says. “It seems to me there is space for a platform that is a little bit more well-rounded and holistic and also straightforward, not biased or opinionated, for political news, hard news, international news, as well as the other things that come up in the morning.”
Hunt stands ready to offer the latest nuances in the 2024 White House race or new information from Ukraine, but could also delve into stories tied to Taylor Swift or the advisability of swimming in France’s River Seine. Expect segments on things that she enjoys, such as baseball and the Baltimore Orioles, or interesting videos that seem to have captivated digital audiences. Hunt expects to tap the expertise of Bleacher Report, the sports outlet owned by CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery, and hopes the program will have a regular weather persona.
“If people are talking about it,” says Hunt, she will bring the topic to a new round table that will have her guests talking to each other rather than staring at the camera.
She also plans to cultivate an “extended family” of commentators who will appear regularly. Viewers of her program have likely already noticed Michael Smerconish appearing late in the week to tout his Saturday program, or analysis from David Axelrod, Kate Beddingfield, Jonah Goldberg or David Frum.
CNN executives have long coveted the viewers who tune into “Morning Joe,” which attracts White House regulars and political aficionados, but occasionally turns to outside-the-Beltway topics. Hunt knows the program well; before arriving at CNN, she was part of the “Joe” extended family, anchoring MSNBC’s “Way Too Early,” the lead-in to Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist.
“I have a lot of respect for my competitors. Mika has been an incredible mentor, and I owe so much of my career to her. That show is going to be there for as long as those two want it to be there, and it’s always going to be an important platform,” says Hunt, who often speaks as though she’s been mulling a new career as an executive producer. “My goal is to work hard and do what I can do. This is going to be a different show with a different person.”
Simply working to emulate the Scarborough roundtable might sell CNN short. The network can take viewers anywhere around the world quickly due to its newsgathering resources, meaning that Hunt is likely to have reporters stationed around the globe even though she comes on the air in the earlier part of the day.
CNN also seems to be leafing through an older playbook. For more than two decades, the company found great traction with a morning program that tackled both hard news and silly stuff — and did so from a base outside the traditional morning-show roost of New York City. “Morning Express,” the HLN morning program anchored by Robin Meade, played well to audiences in the Midwest and South and CNN had at times considered bringing its host to New York (Meade was not as enthusiastic about such a maneuver). CNN unceremoniously canceled the long-running program in 2022 as part of its initial cuts under Warner Bros. Discovery, scrapping years of goodwill with important viewers around the nation.
Hunt, who first arrived at CNN in 2021 after a successful stint at NBC News, says she has to do more than just offer up headlines to viewers. “I spend a lot of time thinking about the morning audience. You become part of their daily lives and their routines in a way that’s very unique,” she says. “I really appreciate that people are willing to let me into their space. It’s not like you’re on in the background in the office.”
She also thinks audiences want more personality — and authenticity – from news anchors at a time when technology is usurping many of the roles once taken on by humans. Viewers want to “know that’s a real person on the other end, and it’s all going to become more important, not less,” she says. All of which puts even more pressure on her to stand out at the start of CNN’s day.
