HLN (TV network): Difference between revisions

On Apr 22, 2023

American cable news channel

Television channel

HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks, the network primarily carries true-crime programming, as well as limited live news programming.

The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News or CNN Headline News), a sister network to CNN that broadcast a looping, half-hour cycle of segments covering various news topics. In 2005, HLN began to diverge from this format and air more personality-based programs, including a primetime block featuring pundits such as Glenn Beck and legal commentator Nancy Grace. In the mid-2010s, HLN repositioned itself as a social media-centric network, highlighting headlines popular on social networks, and introducing social media-themed shows. Under CNN president Jeff Zucker, the channel began to backpedal on this programming in 2016, gradually shifting to a focus on crime, “regional” headlines, and entertainment stories (in contrast to CNN’s current focus on politics) during its daytime programming, with true crime programs

With the 2022 merger of CNN parent WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery, HLN became a sister to Discovery’s true-crime channel Investigation Discovery (ID). In December 2022, new CNN president Chris Licht announced that HLN would abandon original live news programming entirely as part of a reorganization, with HLN now being overseen by ID’s staff, and news programming limited to a simulcast of CNN This Morning for contractual reasons. The network’s schedule outside of that has primarily featured true crime programs as before, in addition to reruns of crime and legal dramas from the Warner Bros. Television library.

As of September 2018, HLN was available to approximately 88.7 million households (92.5 percent of pay television subscribers) in the United States.^[1] Since the mid-2000s, HLN has been available internationally on pay television providers in parts of Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Canada.

History[edit]

Launch and early years[edit]

The channel was launched at midnight Eastern Time on January 1, 1982, as CNN2. The channel’s launch was simulcast nationwide on sister networks CNN and Superstation WTBS (now simply TBS), starting at 11:45 p.m. on December 31, 1981, as a preview for cable providers that had not yet reached agreements to carry CNN2. Following a preview reel by original CNN anchor Lou Waters and an introduction by founder and then-Turner Broadcasting CEO Ted Turner, Chuck Roberts (who would become the channel’s longest-serving news anchor, with a 28-year career with CNN2/Headline News that lasted until his retirement on July 30, 2010)^[2] and Denise LeClair – anchored the channel’s first newscast.^[3]^[4]

Originally, the channel’s programming was formatted around the idea that a viewer could tune in at any time of day or night (instead of having to wait for the once- or twice-daily national news segments in local newscasts, or morning or evening network news programs), and receive up-to-date information on the top national and international stories in just 30 minutes. This “Headline News Wheel” format featured: :00 – national and world news; :15 – business and personal finance reports (“Dollars and Sense”); :20 – sports scores and headlines (“Headline Sports”); and :25 – lifestyle reports (from :30, this news wheel was repeated all over again). The :25/:55 lifestyle segment was designed to allow local cable systems the option of pre-empting it with a local headline “capsule” from an associated regional cable news channel or a local television station. Another regular feature, the “Hollywood Minute”, was often fitted-in after the “Headline Sports” segment. In the channel’s early years, a two-minute recap of the hour’s top stories, the “CNN Headlines,” would run after the sports segment.

On August 9, 1982, what had been called “CNN-2” during its first few months on the air was renamed Headline News. ^[5] During much of the mid-1980s, it was referred to as “CNN Headline News.” At some point in the late 1980s, circa 1988, some newspapers began referring to the channel as “HLN Headline News.”^[6] By 1992, the channel was often abbreviated as “HN” (the channel would later incorporate a die-cut “HN” block design within the original variant of its third logo when it was introduced in 1989, before it was fully supplanted by the wordmark that accompanied it in 1992, which was later italicized). During its first year, Headline News had a competitor in the form of ABC/Group W‘s Satellite News Channel, which operated from June 21, 1982, to October 27, 1983. After its shutdown, SNC’s satellite slot was then purchased by Ted Turner to expand Headline News’ reach further into additional homes. Shortly after, sister station WTBS handed production duties for their NewsWatch news capsules to Headline News by 1983…