50 Fun Facts About CNN

Which CNN anchor ended a Celebrity Jeopardy! round $4,600 in the red and lost to comedian Andy Richter?

Wolf Blitzer had to be handed $1,000 just to take part in Final Jeopardy!, and he finished the 2009 game with $2,000.

Which deep-voiced actor recorded the three-word station identification that CNN began airing in 1990?

James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, first recorded the line for the network's tenth anniversary, and CNN kept using it for more than three decades.

Which US president's hospital visit to shooting victim Vernon Jordan was CNN's first news story?

Jimmy Carter was in the White House when CNN signed on in June 1980, five months before he lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan.

CNN alone could report live from a Baghdad hotel as the bombing began in which conflict?

The Gulf War scoop relied on a private phone line to Amman, which left CNN the only outlet able to report from inside Iraq during the first hours of the bombing.

CNN was the only news network live on air when which space shuttle broke apart after launch?

Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after lift-off in January 1986, and for years CNN's broadcast was the only known footage filmed from the launch site.

Visitors on the old CNN studio tour began by riding the world's longest freestanding example of what?

An escalator listed by Guinness as the world's longest freestanding one carried tourists up through the atrium; it was first built for a Sid and Marty Krofft indoor amusement park.

Which CNN interviewer appeared in suspenders on the nightly talk show he hosted for 25 years?

Larry King earned a Guinness record for hosting the same show on the same network in the same time slot, from June 1985 to December 2010.

Which chef and author travelled the world eating with locals in the CNN series Parts Unknown?

Anthony Bourdain's series won twelve Primetime Emmys and a Peabody Award after it premiered on the network in 2013.

Which outspoken media mogul, nicknamed the Mouth of the South, launched CNN in 1980?

Ted Turner also skippered the winning yacht in the 1977 America's Cup and owned the baseball team that took the 1995 World Series.

On election night 2008, CNN appeared to beam rapper will.i.am into its studio as what?

A hologram is what CNN called the effect, though the technology behind it was really tomography; the rapper used his appearance to voice support for Barack Obama.

In which Southern US city did CNN set up its headquarters when it launched in 1980?

Atlanta housed the network's first studios in the former Progressive Club building on Techwood Drive, a campus CNN began moving back to in 2023.

What do the letters CNN stand for in the name of the channel launched in June 1980?

Cable News Network is the full name; co-founder Reese Schonfeld, its first president, later helped establish Food Network.

Which CNN anchor, a son of Gloria Vanderbilt, guest-hosted Jeopardy! after Alex Trebek's death?

Anderson Cooper joined the network in 2001 and began anchoring his nightly 360° show two years later.

CNN war correspondent Christiane Amanpour was born in London but raised in which capital city?

Tehran was her home until she was sent to an English boarding school at eleven; she joined CNN in 1983 as an entry-level assistant on the foreign desk.

Which practicing neurosurgeon joined CNN in 2001 and became its chief medical correspondent?

Sanjay Gupta was reportedly offered the post of US Surgeon General in 2009 but withdrew his name from consideration.

Which actor explored his ancestral homeland's food in the CNN series Searching for Italy?

Stanley Tucci has credited CNN's earlier food-and-travel hit Parts Unknown as an influence on the series, which won three Emmys for its hosting.

Which documentary about Tilikum, a captive SeaWorld orca, did CNN Films pick up after Sundance?

Blackfish earned a BAFTA nomination and drew SeaWorld into a public fight over whether orcas should be kept in captivity.

Which two-time Oscar-winning actress was married to CNN's founder from 1991 to 2001?

Jane Fonda married him on her birthday, and he later said she had threatened to leave him if he ran for president.

Until 2021, a special CNN channel was produced for screens in which kind of public place across the US?

Airports across the country, 58 of them, carried the service, which was first tested in 1991 at hubs including Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago O'Hare.

What was the name of the news streaming service that shut down about a month after launching in 2022?

CNN+ went live in late March 2022 and was switched off on April 28, after reports that fewer than 10,000 people a day were using it.

CNN hosted the June 2024 presidential debate that led which candidate to quit the race weeks later?

Joe Biden bowed to party pressure and withdrew on July 21, less than a month after sharing CNN's debate stage with Donald Trump.

Jon Stewart scolded the hosts on air in 2004, months before CNN cancelled which political debate show?

Crossfire was axed in January 2005 by a new CNN president, then revived and cancelled a second time on the tenth anniversary of Stewart's visit.

Which British former tabloid editor took over CNN's main evening interview slot in 2011?

Piers Morgan had edited the Daily Mirror and judged America's Got Talent; CNN cancelled his show in 2014 after a steady drop in ratings.

Which Bravo talk show host replaced Kathy Griffin as co-host of CNN's New Year's Eve broadcast in 2017?

Andy Cohen is a close friend of the special's lead anchor, who began hosting CNN's Times Square countdown back in 2002.

CNN made its name in 1987 covering the Texas rescue of toddler Jessica McClure from what?

A well casing just eight inches wide held the toddler 22 feet down for 58 hours, until a paramedic reached her through a tunnel dug from a parallel shaft.

David Walker and Lois Hart, who anchored CNN's very first newscast in 1980, were related in which way?

Husband and wife, the pair took over the broadcast straight after the founder's own on-air introduction on June 1, 1980.

What is the nickname of the giant touchscreen that became a fixture of CNN's election nights?

Magic Wall is the nickname of the Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall, which became familiar enough for The Daily Show to feature it in a segment.

Which Batman star played CNN producer Robert Wiener in the HBO film Live from Baghdad?

Michael Keaton's 2002 film, adapted from Wiener's own book, follows the crew that kept reporting from Iraq's capital as the 1991 bombing began.

Which CNN prime-time anchor was fired in 2021 for helping his brother, New York's governor?

Chris Cuomo had interviewed his brother Andrew on his own show in 2020; their father, Mario, had also been governor of New York.

Which former prosecutor hosted a self-titled nightly show on a CNN sister channel from 2005 to 2016?

Nancy Grace enrolled in law school after her fiancé was murdered when she was 19, then spent nearly a decade as a prosecutor.

Which media giant, then the owner of HBO and People magazine, took control of CNN in a 1996 merger?

Time Warner made CNN's founder its vice chairman in the deal, and he is estimated to have lost billions when the company's later tie-up with AOL soured.

Which telephone giant owned CNN from 2018 until its media arm merged with Discovery in 2022?

AT&T inherited CNN when it bought the channel's parent company in 2018, then split from the media business four years later amid heavy debts.

CNN2, the sister channel that CNN launched on New Year's Day 1982, was soon renamed what?

Headline News repeated a tight half-hour 'wheel' of segments around the clock, a format borrowed from all-news radio stations.

CNN moved its New York studios in 2019 from Columbus Circle to which new Manhattan development?

Hudson Yards became the network's Manhattan base when programs began airing from a new skyscraper at number 30 that May.

Which anchor reported from Baghdad in 1991 and put a famous debate question to Michael Dukakis?

Bernard Shaw, CNN's leading anchor, also covered the 1989 student revolt in Tiananmen Square and the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997.

What do the letters GPS stand for in the title of Fareed Zakaria's weekly CNN world affairs show?

Global Public Square earned a Peabody Award in 2011 for covering world issues in a way that showed viewers why they mattered.

CNN 10, the daily news show made for students, takes the number in its title from what?

Its 10-minute length named the show that replaced CNN Student News, a programme the network had produced since 1989.

Which poisoned Russian opposition leader was the subject of an Oscar-winning CNN Films documentary?

Alexei Navalny's film, co-produced with HBO Max, also took the BAFTA for best documentary after first airing on CNN in April 2022.

CNN's founder gave $1 billion to create a foundation supporting which organization?

The United Nations gift created a public charity set up to broaden American support for the world body.

Which Texas billionaire launched his 1992 run for president on CNN's nightly call-in interview show?

Ross Perot returned the next year to debate Al Gore, a broadcast that stayed CNN's most-watched segment until 2015.

Which CNN White House correspondent had his press pass suspended in 2018, prompting the network to sue?

Jim Acosta's credentials were restored with conditions, including a one-question limit for reporters, and CNN then dropped its lawsuit.

Which Oscar-winning actor's company produced CNN's decade documentaries, starting with The Sixties?

Tom Hanks and producing partner Gary Goetzman told the story of 1960s America in ten parts, then returned to 1968 for a four-part series of its own.

Anchor Aaron Brown's first CNN broadcast came from a Manhattan rooftop during which breaking news event?

The September 11 attacks came about two months after he joined the network, and his rooftop reporting that day earned an Edward R. Murrow Award.

CNN's founder ordered a video to air if the world ended, showing military bands playing which hymn?

Nearer, My God, to Thee was filmed before the 1980 launch, performed by Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine musicians outside CNN's first headquarters.

Which former NBCUniversal chief and Today show producer ran CNN as its president from 2013 to 2022?

Jeff Zucker became executive producer of Today at just 26; he resigned from CNN after failing to disclose a relationship with a senior colleague.

Which New Zealand-born CNN reporter, a Vietnam Pulitzer winner, stayed in Baghdad throughout the 1991 bombing?

Peter Arnett became a household name during the first 16 hours of the air war, and later left CNN after narrating a Vietnam report the network retracted.

Which largely vacant downtown complex was renamed CNN Center after the network moved in?

Omni International opened in 1976 around an indoor theme park, an attraction that closed within six months.

Which British actor narrated Cold War, a documentary series CNN's founder funded with the BBC?

Kenneth Branagh voiced all twenty-four episodes, set to theme music by Carl Davis, the composer behind the classic documentary The World at War.

Which CNN State of the Union anchor moderated the second 2012 Obama–Romney presidential debate?

Candy Crowley drew criticism for contradicting Romney mid-debate over the words the president had used about the Benghazi attack.

Which anchor hosted CNN's business show Moneyline from 1980 and later joined Fox Business?

Lou Dobbs doubled as a CNN vice president in the early days, and he resigned from the network for the final time in November 2009.