\n<\/p>\n
CNN wanted to try something new on election night, and you can\u2019t blame them.<\/p>\n
Cable news networks \u2013 well, besides Fox News \u2013 are struggling to retain viewers, even on a night where voters were getting their first real say on Donald Trump\u2019s second presidency.<\/p>\n
More and more customers are cancelling their cable packages in favor of cheaper streaming services or free content on social media. So, the network recently launched a new streaming product of its own called CNN All Access \u2013 priced at $6.99 a month \u2013 that offers online access to a full menu of the network\u2019s news and non-news content, along with a stream of CNN\u2019s television product, something a previous incarnation lacked.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, CNN All Access subscribers got exclusive access to an election night broadcast \u2013 the CNN Election Livecast \u2013 that the network\u2019s data guy and host Harry Enten likened to a \u201cwatch party\u201d. Previewing the event on CNN\u2019s main channel, Enten said it would be \u201ckind of like hanging out with your best friends who know the most about politics\u201d.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no question that CNN\u2019s cast on Tuesday night featured political experts, including commentators Ben Shapiro (the Daily Wire), Charlamagne tha God (the Breakfast Club), Ana Kasparian (the Young Turks) and the gen-Z conservative activist Isabel Brown, who also hosts a show for the Daily Wire. But the program often felt far from what was actually happening at the polls.<\/p>\n
Throughout the two-hour program, there were few updates on the results of the election. Those watching the streaming show rather than the main CNN broadcast, which featured the network\u2019s standard election-night fare \u2013 anchors Jake Tapper and John King pointing to maps and getting live reports from campaign celebrations \u2013 were late to find out that the network had projected Zohran Mamdani as the winner of the New York City mayoral election. (Enten had to interrupt a discussion between Shapiro and Kasparian about the white nationalist Nick Fuentes to actually share the update.)<\/p>\n
CNN designed a set for the event that featured comfy couches, arcade games, a pop-a-shot basketball game and a foosball table. The idea was that the cast would actually have some fun, playing games while chatting politics and taking in the results. But everyone stayed glued to their seats \u2013 until the very end of the broadcast, when Enten made Shapiro play the basketball game. Neither had much success. \u201cWe have this lovely room here, and we haven\u2019t actually utilized it at all,\u201d Enten said. A large coffee table in the center of the room featured bowls of snacks that never seemed to get touched.<\/p>\n
Kara Swisher, who was beamed into the room for a few minutes, perhaps too honestly, described it as \u201cthe weirdest living room I\u2019ve ever seen\u201d.<\/p>\n
The panel also seemed to lack true ideological diversity, with the cast seeming to largely agree that Mamdani would struggle to actually govern \u2013 and all affirming that they viewed Joe Biden\u2019s administration as a failure.<\/p>\n
About an hour in, Charlamagne tha God left the panel because, Enten said, he needed to get up early the next morning for his day job. He was replaced by Tezlyn Figaro, who has appeared on the Breakfast Club.<\/p>\n
As the event wound down, Enten struggled to actually end it because the panel was in the middle of a heated discussion about whether Mamdani was a \u201cjihadist\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat, I think, is a lovely way to end this evening,\u201d Enten said, finding a stopping point. \u201cI think it\u2019s been an amazingly fun time \u2013 a different experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that, in a nod to what matters most at CNN right now, Enten said he was off to spend a few hours analyzing election results on the television channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CNN wanted to try something new on election night, and you can\u2019t blame them. Cable news networks \u2013 well, besides Fox News \u2013 are struggling to retain viewers, even on a night where voters were getting their first real say on Donald Trump\u2019s second presidency. More and more customers are cancelling their cable packages in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[3874,1075,18682,4668,2284,278,446,2651,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-32320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-access","9":"tag-cnn","10":"tag-cnns","11":"tag-election","12":"tag-future","13":"tag-networks","14":"tag-night","15":"tag-party","16":"tag-watch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}