The Cable News Network is considering going head-to-head sometime next year with the evening news shows of ABC, CBS and NBC.
”We are considering a number of program changes, and one of them would be, could be, might be, might not be a head-to-head newscast,” said publicity chief Steve Haworth from the network`s Atlanta headquarters. ”The whole thing is highly speculative right now.”
Haworth said that if CNN, with its 24-hour news format, does go into competition with the commercial networks in a specific evening news block, an hour newscast would be considered, ”to make it different” from the half-hour broadcasts of Peter Jennings at ABC, Dan Rather at CBS and Tom Brokaw at NBC.
”When we first came on the air, with 1.7 million households and no name recognition, there was no question that the right thing for us to do was to counterprogram (against) the network evening newscasts,” Haworth said. ”The question is, when do we become large enough and credible enough to warrant”
reconsideration of that decision
”What we`re asking ourselves is, have we finally reached that point in numbers and credibility? We just haven`t decided yet.”
CNN reaches more than 50 million U.S. cable households and is seen in 83 countries. The network recently won praise from observers for its coverage of such events as the student uprising in China and ”The Battle for Peace,” a 30-part series on arms control.
He would not say if veteran correspondent Bernard Shaw or Catherine Crier, the Texas judge just hired to be a CNN anchor, would be used in such a newscast.
”It`s really premature to speculate on that, especially with Catherine Crier, because she hasn`t joined us yet,” he said.
Haworth said no decision is expected until ”sometime next year.”
