''Starting Point'' (formerly ''Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien'') is a morning television show on

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

anchored by

Soledad O'Brien María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien (born September 19, 1966) is an American broadcast journalist and executive producer. Since 2016, O'Brien has been the host for ''Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien,'' a nationally syndicated weekly talk show ...

. The show aired from January 2012 to June 2013. Together with the program ''

Early Start ''Early Start'' is an American news morning television show on CNN and also broadcast on CNN International. It premiered on January 2, 2012. Anchored by Christine Romans since 2014, the program airs weekdays from 5:00-6:00 a.m. ET. History ...

'' (4.00–6.00 a.m. weekdays), it replaced ''

American Morning ''American Morning'' was an American three-hour morning television news program that aired on CNN from 2001 to 2011. ''American Morning'' debuted with anchors Paula Zahn and Anderson Cooper on the day after the September 11 attacks, five months e ...

'', which ran from September 2001 to December 2011, under a variety of presenters. ''Starting Point'' was itself replaced by '' New Day'' in June 2013, which is broadcast from 6.00–9.00 a.m. daily.

Format

CNN described the show as a "conversational ensemble" with O'Brien at its center. It was broadcast from CNN's studios in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, but had also broadcast in various diners around the United States. Frequent panelists included Will Cain,

Margaret Hoover Margaret Claire Hoover (born December 11, 1977) is an American conservative political commentator, political strategist, media personality, author, and great-granddaughter of Herbert Hoover, the 31st U.S. president. She is author of the book ''Am ...

, and

Roland S. Martin Roland Sebastian Martin (born November 14, 1968) is an American journalist. He was a commentator for TV One, the host of ''News One Now'', and ''Washington on Watch With Roland S. Martin''. He was also a CNN contributor, appearing on a variety ...

2012 presidential election

The show followed the

2012 Republican primary Voters of the Republican Party elected state delegations to the 2012 Republican National Convention in presidential primaries. The national convention then selected its nominee to run for President of the United States in the 2012 presidentia ...

trail by broadcasting from states where primaries are held, usually in local diners and cafes. In its first two weeks, O'Brien anchored first from

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

and then

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Hamp ...

to cover the

Iowa caucuses The Iowa caucuses are biennial electoral events for members of the Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S. state of Iowa. Unlike primary elections in most other U.S. states, where registered voters go to polling places to cast ballots, ...

and

New Hampshire primary The New Hampshire presidential primary is the first in a series of nationwide party primary elections and the second party contest (the first being the Iowa caucuses) held in the United States every four years as part of the process of choosi ...

respectively. Other cities the show has covered include

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

and

Jacksonville Beach, Florida Jacksonville Beach is a coastal resort city in Duval County, Florida, United States. It was incorporated on May 22, 1907, as Pablo Beach, and would later change its name to Jacksonville Beach in 1925. The city is part of group of communities coll ...

History

Reports emerged in September 2011 that CNN was seeking to replace ''

'' due to poor ratings by bringing

back to its morning lineup. O'Brien co-hosted ''American Morning'' from 2003 to 2007. By November 2011, CNN announced that ''American Morning'' would be replaced by two new programs, with O'Brien anchoring the second slot from 7:00-9:00AM. The show's name was announced as ''Starting Point'' via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. The show premiered on January 2, 2012, and aired weekdays from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET. Along with ''

'', ''Starting Point'' replaced ''

'', which aired from 2001 to 2011. The show received poor ratings, and was canceled in early 2013 by CNN executive

Jeff Zucker Jeffrey Adam Zucker (born April 9, 1965) is an American former media executive. Between January 2013 and February 2022, Zucker was the president of CNN Worldwide. Zucker oversaw CNN, CNN International, HLN, and CNN Digital. He was previously C ...

.Adam Gabbatt
CNN's Soledad O'Brien signs off with call for 'tough conversations'
''The Guardian'' (March 29, 2016). The final show with O'Brien as host aired on March 29, 2013. ''Starting Point'' was replaced by '' New Day'', co-anchored by

Chris Cuomo Christopher Cuomo ( ; born August 9, 1970) is a television journalist anchor at NewsNation, based in New York City. He has previously been the ABC News chief law and justice correspondent and the co-anchor for ABC's ''20/20'', news anchor for ...

and

Kate Bolduan Katherine Jean Bolduan (;) is an American broadcast journalist and news anchor for CNN based in New York City. She is currently the host of ''At This Hour with Kate Bolduan'', and previously anchored ''State of America with Kate Bolduan'' and '' ...

. CNN announced that O'Brien would continue to produce documentaries for CNN and other networks by launching her own start-up production company, Starfish Media Group.Don Kaplan
Soledad O'Brien marks one-year anniversary of her production company, Starfish Media Group
''New York Daily News'' (May 18, 2014).

References

External links

Official website
{{US morning news shows 2012 American television series debuts 2013 American television series endings 2010s American television news shows CNN original programming English-language television shows