John Berman has done almost everything an anchor can do at CNN. He guides viewers through breaking news during hours of “CNN News Central.” He’s filled in for Anderson Cooper, co-hosted a morning show and is trained to handle CNN’s “Magic Wall” on primary and election nights. Now he has a new assignment – but you won’t find it on the traditional CNN schedule Berman has been hosting a new CNN program called “Office Hours” that runs periodically on the news giant’s nascent subscription product “CNN All Access.” During “Office Hours,” Berman interacts with subscribers and helps to answer their questions about elections, politics and more.
On Wednesday evening, Berman will host a new edition of the program alongside Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner, his “News Central” co-hosts. Across the TV-news sector, there is an emerging focus on letting the people who are tuning in have more say or on hiring people with deep expertise in a certain topic who can help guide news aficionados in a more personal, unvarnished way. Discovery-backed news unit.
MS NOW has put significant emphasis on giving more access to its anchors and correspondents via interactive video sessions on its new “Membership” subscription product. Even Rachel Maddow and members of “Morning Joe” have committed to weekly hangouts with subscribers. And of course, there are many other digital corners where headline-seekers can talk to one another.
CNN’s goal was “to take the conversations happening around us and bring it to our ecosystem and make our subscriptions stickier.” CNN has introduced new on-screen elements to some of its TV programs — like a “rail” for text chats from correspondents — in a bid to keep conversations from moving elsewhere. Even so, executives have been methodical, not rushed, about crafting CNN’s new interactive format. CNN did three or four early sessions via Zoom, Kadro says, then sought feedback from attendees.
Participation on the first “Office Hours” with Berman was three times what had been expected, Kadro says. From there, the company set about crafting something that would work on its new app. The new show puts Berman into situations he might not typically encounter on TV.
During one recent “Office Hours” ostensibly focused on the coming midterm elections, the anchor found he kept getting questions and comments about President Trump’s proposal to hand out $5,000 checks to Americans if Republicans emerged victorious. For a TV veteran like Berman, there is, for now, a chance to pivot when it comes to facilitating new kinds of interactions with news viewers.
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