“Tonight,” CNN Primetime started ominously on Thursday night. “Close calls…bird strikes…dangerous turbulence…unruly passengers…system collapses. America’s aviation industry faces headwinds and life-or-death questions about passenger safety and the future of flight.”
News programs are not usually light. On the other hand, they are not usually that heavy either.
CNN has been experimenting with its primetime show under the tenure of chris lightwho took over jeff sugar in February 2022. One particular area of focus has been the 9pm time slot, which of late has been reserved for town halls and hour-long specials on a variety of current events.
The adjustments come as the network’s ratings lag far behind its cable news competitors, Fox News and MSNBC. CNN’s ratings are at an all-time high. lower in more than a decade.
Thursday night, CNN Primetime at 9 pm an hour-long special aired that was not related to a particular current event, but was related to something relevant to many Americans: air travel.
But Scott’s cheap flights weren’t. Nor was it a tutorial on ways air travelers can say, reduce stress while traveling. In fact, it was the exact opposite. For an hour, viewers were fed a relentless diet of heart-wrenching stories from the sky about issues over which the passengers have virtually no control.
The show’s title was “Flight Risk: Turbulent Times for Air Travel.” It should be noted that while air travel in 2023 sucks, it is nonetheless as safe as it’s ever been.
The task of hosting Thursdays prime time fell towards Kate Bolduanwhich ran the gamut of several nightmare air travel scenarios.
For lack of a better term, the show was soft disaster porn. And though the show didn’t mention it, it was hard not to feel the presence of MH370, the missing airliner that vanished over the Indian Ocean in 2014. CNN leaned so heavily on coverage of that tragic event that the network’s hosts essentially ran out of matter Famously, lemon gift asked a CNN guest if the ship could have missing in a black hole
It’s hard not to imagine Thursday primetime it was an attempt to recapture, well, “magic” isn’t the right word at all, but you get the idea.
Look above via CNN.
