CNN

Cable News Network (CNN) is an American multinational news media company and the flagship namesake property of CNN Worldwide, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Founded on June 1, 1980, by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, CNN is the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage and the first all-news television channel in the United States.

As of December 2023, CNN had 68,974,000 television households as subscribers in the United States. According to Nielsen, down from 80 million in March 2021. In June 2021, CNN ranked third in viewership among cable news networks, behind Fox News and MSNBC, averaging 580,000 viewers throughout the day, down 49% from a year earlier, amid sharp declines in viewers across all cable news networks. While CNN ranked 14th among all basic cable networks in 2019, then jumped to 7th during a major surge for the three largest cable news networks (completing a rankings streak of Fox News at number 5 and MSNBC at number 6 for that year), it settled back to number 11 in 2021 and had further declined to number 21 in 2022.

Globally, CNN programming has aired through CNN International, seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories. Since May 2019, however, the American domestic version has absorbed international news coverage in order to reduce programming costs. The American version, sometimes referred to as CNN (US), is also available in Canada, and some islands in the Caribbean. CNN also licenses its brand and content to other channels, such as CNN-News18 in India. In Japan it broadcasts CNNj which started in 2003, with simultaneous translation in Japanese.

CNN has often been subjected to criticism from conservative media and other organizations for having a perceived left-wing bias; conversely, it has also been criticized for false balance in support of conservative positions.

The Cable News Network launched at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on June 1, 1980. After an introduction by Ted Turner, the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the channel's first newscast. Burt Reinhardt, the executive vice president of CNN, hired most of the channel's first 200 employees, including the network's first news anchor, former ABC News Capitol Hill senior correspondent Bernard Shaw.

Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to several cable and satellite television providers, websites, and specialized closed-circuit channels (such as CNN Airport). The company has 42 bureaus (12 domestic, 31 international), more than 900 affiliated local stations (which also receive news and features content via the video newswire service CNN Newsource), and several regional and foreign-language networks around the world. The channel's success made a bona-fide mogul of founder Ted Turner and set the stage for conglomerate Time Warner's (later WarnerMedia which merged with Discovery Inc. forming Warner Bros. Discovery) eventual acquisition of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1996.

CNN's current weekday schedule consists mostly of rolling news programming during daytime hours, followed by in-depth news and information programs with a focus on political news and discussion during the evening and primetime hours. The network's morning programming consists of Early Start, an early-morning news program now hosted by Rahel Solomon at 5–6 a.m. ET. This is followed by CNN This Morning, hosted by Audie Cornish, at 6 a.m. ET. Since April 2023, CNN News Central has served as the network's rolling news block on weekdays, but is now on air for six hours each weekday - serving as the channel's breakfast show, anchored by John Berman, Kate Bolduan, and Sara Sidner, and as the afternoon rolling news programme, from 1–4 p.m. ET anchored by Brianna Keilar and Boris Sanchez. The gap between the two editions of News Central is filled by The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Inside Politics in the noon hour, hosted by Dana Bash. CNN's late afternoon and early evening lineup consists of The Arena with Kasie Hunt followed at 5 p.m. by The Lead with Jake Tapper

The network's evening and prime time lineup, which is also aured globally on CNN International, shifts towards more in-depth programming, including Erin Burnett OutFront at 7 p.m. ET, Anderson Cooper 360° at 8 p.m. ET, and The Source with Kaitlan Collins at 9 p.m. ET. The 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. hours are filled by CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip and Laura Coates Live respectively. And from midnight to 5 a.m. CNN simulcasts CNN International's CNN Newsroom.