HLN is an American

basic cable Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million American households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found ...

network. Owned by

CNN Worldwide Warner Bros. Discovery is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in New York City. The company works in the following areas: film, television, cable networks and publishing operations. The following is a lis ...

, the network primarily carries true-crime programming, recently drifting away from limited live news programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982, by

Turner Broadcasting Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (later WarnerMedia) on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its ass ...

as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News or CNN Headline News), a sister network to

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

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 Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to b ...

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

featuring

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

s such as

Glenn Beck Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and rad ...

and legal commentator

Nancy Grace Nancy Ann Grace (born October 23, 1959) is an American legal pundit, commentator and television journalist. She hosted ''Nancy Grace (TV program), Nancy Grace'', a nightly celebrity news and current affairs (news format), current affairs show ...

. In the mid-2010s, HLN repositioned itself as a

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

-centric network, highlighting headlines popular on

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

s, and introducing social media-themed shows. Under CNN president

Jeff Zucker Jeffrey Adam Zucker (born April 9, 1965) is an American businessman and media executive. Zucker was the president of CNN Worldwide from 2013 to 2022. He oversaw CNN, CNN International, HLN, and CNN Digital. He was previously CEO of NBCUniver ...

, 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 airing at all other times. With the 2022 merger of CNN parent

WarnerMedia Warner Media, LLC (Trade name, doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational corporation, multinational mass media and show business, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 ...

and

Discovery Inc. Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1982, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chan ...

to form

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Outline of entertainment, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed from WarnerMedi ...

, HLN became a sister to Discovery's true-crime channel

Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries, similar to corporate sibling HLN. It is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery's netw ...

(ID). In December 2022, then-new CNN president

Chris Licht Christopher Andrew Licht (born October 22, 1971) is an American television newsman and producer. He is best known as the showrunner and executive producer of ''The Late Show With Stephen Colbert'', as well as CBS's executive vice president of sp ...

announced that HLN would abandon original live news programming entirely as part of a reorganization, with the network now being overseen by ID's staff. For contractual reasons, HLN continues to air news content daily through a simulcast of CNN's early morning programming. The network's schedule outside of that has primarily featured true crime programs as before, in addition to occasional marathons of crime and legal dramas from the

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios, operating under the name Warner Bros. Television (abbreviated as WBTV; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division), is an American television production and distribution studio and the flagship studio o ...

library. , HLN is available to approximately 68,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2011 peak of 100,000,000 households. 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

Launch and early years

The channel was launched at midnight

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...

on January 1, 1982, as CNN2. The channel's launch was

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

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 Lou Waters (born July 7, 1938) is an American retired television journalist. He was one of the original anchors of CNN, an American cable news channel when it first aired in the summer of 1980 and remained one of the network's primary anchors unti ...

and an introduction by founder and then-Turner Broadcasting CEO

Ted Turner Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He founded the CNN, Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, ...

Chuck Roberts Charles S. Roberts (born October 25, 1950, Santa Fe, New Mexico) is an American broadcast journalist, most notable for being the former weekday news anchor on Headline News, based at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the longe ...

(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) and Denise LeClair anchored the channel's first newscast. 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—which was derived from the "wheel" segment schedules used by

all-news radio All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and radio syndication, syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news sta ...

stations and repeated each half-hour—featured national and world news at the top of the hour (:00/:30), business and personal finance reports ("Dollars and Sense") at :15/:45 after the hour; sports scores and headlines ("Headline Sports") at :20/50 after; and lifestyle reports at :25/:55 after. 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 A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

. Another regular feature, the "

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

Minute", was often fitted-in after the "Headline Sports" segment. In the channel's early years, a two-minute

recap Recap may refer to: * Retread a resurfaced tire * Recap sequence * Dividend recapitalization * RECAP, archiving software for United States court documents *'' The Recap'' album See also * Summary (disambiguation) {{disambig ...

of the hour's top stories, the "CNN Headlines," would run after the sports segment. On August 9, 1982, what had been called "CNN2" for its first eight months on the air was renamed Headline News, though the network would be referred to on-air as "CNN Headline News" for much of the mid-1980s. (Beginning around 1988, some newspapers began referring to the channel as "HLN Headline News.") 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 A wordmark or word mark is a text-only statement of the name of a product, service, company, organization, or institution which is used for purposes of identification and branding. A wordmark can be an actual word (e.g., Apple), a made-up term ...

that accompanied it in 1992, which was later italicized). During its first year, Headline News had a competitor in the form of

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

/ Group W's

Satellite News Channel Satellite News Channel (SNC) was an American short-lived news-based cable television channel that was operated as a joint venture between the ABC Video Enterprises division of American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. (a.k.a. ABC) and the Group W S ...

, which operated from June 21, 1982, to October 27, 1983. After its shutdown, SNC's satellite slot was then purchased by

to expand Headline News' reach further into additional homes. Shortly after, sister station WTBS handed over production duties for their ''NewsWatch'' news capsules to Headline News (resulting in these interstitials switching from an in-studio anchor format to being presented in voiceover only), and at various times, other specialized news capsules produced by Headline News aired as well; the ''NewsWatch'' segments as well as daily Headline News simulcasts were phased out on TBS's local and national feeds in 1996 after the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) relaxed regulatory requirements on public affairs programming. Jon Petrovich was hired in the mid-1980s by Turner to lead Headline News. In 1990, Headline News developed ''Local Edition'', a six-minute-long local newscast, whose content was produced by a local broadcast station in the participating market, airing at the end of each half-hour of Headline News' rolling news block. The channel included the "CNN" branding in its name intermittently for most of its history, before being incorporated on a regular basis from 1997 to 2007 (though an alternate logo without the CNN logo was used for news broadcasts through 2001). In 1989, Headline News introduced a ticker that appeared at the lower one-third of the screen – except during commercial breaks, which initially showed specific financial data with indexes of the major

stock exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for ...

s (including the

Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity indice ...

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

and the

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and in ...

) and quotes for major companies during trading hours, which were updated on a 15-minute delay. In 1992, the channel added the "Headline News SportsTicker", which showed sports scores and schedules for the day's upcoming games, creating the first continuous news ticker on television. The redesign resulted in video of the rolling newscasts becoming

pillarbox The pillarbox effect occurs in widescreen video displays when black bars ( mattes or masking) are placed on the sides of the image. It becomes necessary when film or video that was not originally designed for widescreen is shown on a widescreen ...

ed with blue bars on the left and right wings of the screen (matching the ticker's original coloring), before it returned to a full-screen format, with the ticker becoming a translucent black background overlaid on the lower third of the video, as part of a 1994 update to the channel's graphics package that also added weather forecasts for select major U.S. cities to the ticker. At the same time, the network's bug was integrated into the ticker, and thus, the logo was no longer used in the copyright at the end of each broadcast. Like CNN, the parent company Turner Broadcasting System was acquired by

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

in 1996.

George H. W. Bush death hoax

On January 8, 1992, Headline News almost became the victim of a hoax. When President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

fainted at a state dinner in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan, a person claiming to be the president's physician called into the channel's Atlanta headquarters and claimed that Bush had died. At 9:45 a.m., anchor

Don Harrison Don Harrison (August 8, 1936 – May 2, 1998) was an anchor on CNN Headline News from 1982 until his death from renal cancer in 1998. He was a member of the original team of anchors when Headline News went on the air for the first time as "CNN2" ...

prepared to break the story, stating "This just in to CNN Headline News, and we say right off the bat, we have not confirmed this through any other sources..."

Executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

Roger Bahre, who was off-camera, immediately yelled "No! Stop!" After glancing away momentarily, Harrison continued, "We are now getting a correction. We will not give you that story. It was regarding some rather tragic news involving President Bush, but updating that story, President Bush is reported to be resting comfortably." It turned out that an

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

man, James Edward Smith, called CNN posing as the president's physician. A CNN employee entered the information into a centralized computer used by both CNN and Headline News, and it nearly got out on the air before it could be verified. Smith was subsequently questioned by the

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...

and hospitalized at a private medical facility for evaluation.

Jukebox effect

In 1992, Headline News pioneered the use of a digital video "

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...

" to recycle segments of one newscast seamlessly into another. The new technology reduced the number of staffers needed by enabling news segments to be re-used throughout an entire day (previously, anchors read the same stories repeatedly, hour after hour, with the second 15 minutes of each half-hour in the "wheel" being broadcast on videotape every third and fourth hour). This resulted in the layoffs of part of its staff, including such

stalwart Stalwart may refer to: Ships * , several Royal Australian Navy ships * , several US Navy ships * ''Stalwart''-class ocean surveillance ship, a US Navy class ** , lead ship of the class * RSS ''Stalwart'', a Singapore Navy frigate Places * Sta ...

anchors as Lyn Vaughn,

1999 reformatting

On June 15, 1999, the network underwent a complete visual revamp, including an updated ticker (now dubbed the "Superticker"), a brand-new newsroom and studio, and a sectioning of the channel's schedule into four distinct dayparts, to convey the idea that, unlike CNN, which aired long-form programming such as discussion shows and documentaries, Headline News never stopped offering straight news coverage. The daypart blocks each ran for six hours and utilized their own special branding and color-coding (which extended to the graphics and segment introductions): ''First Watch'' (from 6:00 a.m.-12 midday Eastern Time, colored yellow), ''Second Watch'' (12 midday - 6:00 p.m. ET, colored red), ''Third Watch'' (6:00 p.m.-12 midnight ET, colored green), and ''Late Watch'' (12 midnight - 6:00 a.m. ET, colored blue). Additional segments were also added prior to commercial breaks: ''Best Bets On...'', which provided top picks in categories such as films (with information supplied by publications owned by then-sister company

Time Inc. Time Inc. (also referred to as Time & Life, Inc. later on, after their two onetime flagship magazine publications) was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New ...

), and ''Week-At-A-Glance'', which provided summaries of important events occurring that week. To promote the change, two new slogans were introduced: ''Get To The Point News'' and ''24 Hour Nonstop Headlines'' (the latter frequently used in ident bumpers).

2001 re-launch

On August 6, 2001, CNN Headline News unveiled a revamp of the network's on-air format, promoted with a new slogan, ''Real news, real fast''. The centerpiece of the new format was the replacement of the network's ticker with a large pane across the bottom of the screen, which displayed headlines and other information (such as weather updates and sports news). The network also introduced another new studio and multi-anchor format, and announced plans to add more live rolling news coverage. CNN described the new design as being inspired by the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

, in an attempt to appeal to younger viewers; the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' noted that the channel's viewership had been dropping, and skewing towards viewers over 50, which are not desirable to most advertisers. Upon its launch, the new format received mixed reviews, with critics arguing that the new screen format conveyed too much information at once, distracting viewers from its main video programming. Critics also drew comparisons to financial news channels, as well as a similar increase in on-screen information announced by sports news service

ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News," stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hear ...

. Steve Johnson of the ''Chicago Tribune'' explained that "the video portion of Headline News' subdivided screen occupies only about a third of the total real estate. My 27-inch set shrinks, in effect, to a 14-incher when tuned to Headline News. Never mind the old-school problem of trying to spot the hockey puck; people with smaller sets watching sports highlights here will have trouble finding a basketball." On February 3, 2003 Headline News moved to a fully live format from 6AM-Midnight weekdays. This line-up would continue until Headline News began to move away from the newswheel in 2005. *6AM-9AM Robin Meade *9AM-Noon Judy Fortin & Thomas Roberts *Noon-3PM Kathleen Kennedy & Renay San Miguel *3PM-6PM Linda Stouffer &

*6PM-9PM

Sophia Choi Sophia Choi (born March 5, 1971) is an American news broadcaster at WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia. Biography Sophia Choi was born in Daegu, Korea. She moved to the U.S. at the age of seven, and attended Hollywood Elementary School in Hollywood, M ...

& Stephan Frazier *9PM-11PM Headline News Tonight with Rudi Bakhtiar &

Mike Galanos Mike Galanos (born November 7, 1964) is a former American news anchor for HLN, currently appearing as part of the team on '' Morning Express with Robin Meade''. Based in CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, Galanos joined the network in May 2002 ...

*Midnight-6AM Headline News 24/7 with Bakhtiar & Gallanos, repeating every hour

2005–2013: ''Headline Prime'', "News and Views"

In February 2005, the network launched a new primetime block known as ''Headline Prime''; the block was designed to feature opinion-driven and personality-based programs (in contrast to the "

hard news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

" programming of CNN), which network executive

Ken Jautz Ken Jautz is a television executive who became an EVP for CNN-US, after first joining Turner Broadcasting Europe 36 years before, resigning in 2024. Prior, he worked in various media roles, beginning as a foreign correspondent in Europe for A ...

described as a shift to "news to views". Its launch lineup featured ''Prime News Tonight'', the entertainment news program ''

Showbiz Tonight ''Showbiz Tonight'' is a defunct American entertainment news program that aired from February 20, 2005, until February 6, 2014, on HLN. ''Showbiz Tonight'' was hosted by A. J. Hammer at CNN New York at the time of its cancellation. The show ...

'' with A. J. Hammer, and an eponymous current affairs program hosted by legal commentator

, which featured news and analysis related to crime and court cases.

Noam Cohen Noam Cohen is an American journalist. He was a technology columnist and author of the "Link by Link" column for ''The New York Times'' from 2007 to 2013. He is the author of the 2017 nonfiction book ''The Know-It-Alls: The Rise of Silicon Valley ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' described the new lineup as being reminiscent of

Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...

. In May 2006, ''Headline Prime'' added an eponymous program hosted by

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

radio host

. Both ''Nancy Grace'' and ''Glenn Beck'' brought major ratings gains to Headline News, especially within the

key demographic The key demographic or target demographic is a term in commercial broadcasting that refers to the most desirable demographic group to a given advertiser. Key demographics vary by outlet, time of day, and programming type, but they are generally ...

s, although its daytime programming only saw modest increases. ''Exposed: The Extremist Agenda'', a Glenn Beck special aired in November 2006, broke a million viewers and was the network's most-watched program of the year. That year, Headline News also launched a morning show hosted by Robin Meade, ''Robin & Company''—which was later re-branded as '' Morning Express'' in 2007. On December 15, 2008, alongside an associated revamp of CNN's on-air presentation, Headline News underwent a rebranding with a new

speech bubble Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...

-themed logo, and officially adopted the initialism "HLN" as its on-air name. "News and Views" was also adopted as the network's new slogan. In September 2010, Scott Safon was named as president of HLN, succeeding Jautz (who was promoted to president of the main CNN channel). On November 4, 2011, HLN launched its own website at HLNtv.com, which featured content related to HLN television programs, and other "must see and must share" stories. In May 2012, HLN acquired the rights to broadcast the

Daytime Emmy Awards The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NA ...

, beginning with the 39th annual event on June 23, 2012; this marked the first time that the awards ceremony was aired on pay television, instead of

terrestrial television Terrestrial television, or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the content is signal transmission, transmitted via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV rece ...

. With 912,000 viewers (not counting four repeat broadcasts, which brought the total to two million), the broadcast was "the most watched regularly scheduled, non-news telecast" ever on HLN.

Casey Anthony and Conrad Murray trials

''Nancy Grace'' would achieve notoriety for its extensive coverage of the disappearance and death of two year-old Caylee Anthony; HLN was credited with having "almost single-handedly inflated the Anthony case from a routine local murder into a national obsession". HLN subsequently devoted a significant amount of coverage to the murder trial against Caylee's mother Casey Anthony—whom Grace referred to as the "tot mom" on-air—including live gavel-to-gavel coverage, followed by continued coverage and commentary during primetime programs such as ''Nancy Grace''. HLN reached an average audience of 982,000 viewers in June 2011, and ''Nancy Grace'' experienced an 80% increase in viewership—second only to ''

The O'Reilly Factor ''The O'Reilly Factor'' (originally titled ''The O'Reilly Report'' and also known as ''The Factor'') is an American cable television news and talk show. ''The O'Reilly Factor'' first aired in the United States on Fox News Channel on October 7 ...

'' on Fox News in its time slot. During the reading of the verdict on July 5, 2011, HLN achieved a record-high peak audience of 5.2 million viewers, while ''Nancy Grace'' achieved a record-high 2.9 million viewers, beating other basic cable news channels (including Fox News) in the 8 p.m. hour. HLN executive vice president Scot Safon called the trial "a gigantic deal" for the network. Later that year, HLN provided similar coverage for the trial of

Conrad Murray Conrad Robert Murray (born February 19, 1953) is a Grenadian-American former cardiologist and convicted felon. He was the personal physician of Michael Jackson on the day of his death in 2009. In 2011, Murray was convicted of involuntary mansl ...

, who was accused of prescribing the drugs that caused the

death of Michael Jackson On June 25, 2009, the American singer Michael Jackson died of acute propofol intoxication in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 50. His personal physician, Conrad Murray, said that he found Jackson in his bedroom at his North Carolwood Dr ...

. Although the Conrad Murray trial did not initially have as strong of an impact on ratings as the Casey Anthony trial, viewership began to increase during the testimony phase, and HLN reported that 2.1 million viewers were watching the network during the reading of the guilty verdict. The network reported a 98% year-over-year gain in viewership for the month of October 2011.

2013–2015: Focus on social media

Albie Hecht Albie Hecht is an American film and television producer and media executive. In 1997, Hecht was the president of film and TV entertainment for Nickelodeon before becoming president of the television channel Spike TV in 2003. In 2005, he founded ...

joined HLN as Executive Vice President and GM in September 2013. In November 2013, consumer advocate

Clark Howard Clark Brian Howard (born June 20, 1955) is an American author and radio/podcast host, focused primarily on personal finance, consumer protection, and related topics. He has hosted ''The Clark Howard Show,'' which began in 1989 and has lasted ov ...

ended his five-year relationship with HLN, including his appearances on ''Morning Express with Robin Meade'' and ''Evening Express'' as well as his own eponymous weekend afternoon program. The move came in response to planned changes occurring at HLN, which sought to re-position the network as the "first TV home for the

generation." Throughout 2014, HLN's news content began to skew towards

millennial Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ...

s, with an increasing focus on content popular on

social networks A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of meth ...

alongside major headlines. For a period, HLN also aired '' RightThisMinute'', a syndicated program focusing on

viral video Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...

s. In June 2014, Time Warner made a bid to acquire a stake in

Vice Media Vice Media Group LLC is a Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company. Vice Media encompasses four main business areas: Vice Studios Group (film and TV production); Vice TV (a joint venture with A&E Networks, also known as Vicelan ...

, with an intent for the company to take over and relaunch HLN. Time Warner abandoned the deal in August, and Vice subsequently partnered with

A&E Networks A&E Television Networks, LLC, doing business as A+E Global Media (formerly A+E Networks) is an American multinational broadcasting company owned and operated as a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company th ...

to launch

Viceland Viceland (stylized in all caps; also known as Vice TV in the United States) is a brand used for television channels owned and programmed by Vice Media. The brand launched on February 29, 2016, with two cable channels in North America. The Vice ...

in 2016. These plans culminated on January 13, 2015, when HLN underwent a major revamp in its programming and on-air presentation; the network introduced several new social media-themed programs, including the new afternoon block ''The Daily Share'', ''Jack Vale: Offline'' – a

docusoap Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

following

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

Jack Vale,

Ali Nejad Oliver "Ali" Nejad (born 25 February 1978) is an Iranian-American television personality, who has hosted several shows including ''Road Trip'' on ESPNU, and has been a fill-in host for ''UNite'', also on ESPNU. In May 2014, Nejad began working a ...

's ''The Social Life'', and ''Keywords'', a social media-themed

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

hosted by

Summer Sanders Summer Elizabeth SandersBurton, Bruce (July 9, 1998). "Success is driving force for Summer". ''The Sacramento Bee''. p. 1B7B Retrieved January 29, 2024. (born October 13, 1972) is an American sports commentator, reporter, television persona ...

. HLN also adopted an updated logo, and introduced a new set at Studio 7 of the CNN Center, used by ''Morning Express'' and ''The Daily Share''. The new studio had a "

coffee house A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, Caffè americano, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually ...

"-styled design with no traditional anchor desk, and a "Social Circle" designed to encourage interaction between hosts and guests.

T-Mobile US T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. Its majority shareholder and namesake is the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile is the second largest wireless carrie ...

also signed on to serve as a sponsor for ''The Daily Share'', allowing on-set branding and sponsored segments during the program. In late-May 2015, ''The Daily Share'' was cut from five hours to two, with the remainder of its timeslot filled by CNN original series and specials, followed by next-day encores of ''Nancy Grace'' and ''Dr. Drew On Call''.

2016–2022: Change in strategy, integration of true crime programming

On November 24, 2015, CNN Worldwide president

announced, in a memo to network staff, that Hecht would depart HLN; Ken Jautz, who oversaw the network as its president prior to Hecht's appointment in 2013, would head the network in the interim. The memo outlined plans to restructure its daytime and overnight programming to more closely resemble CNN, including a focus on documentary films. In June 2016, HLN announced that

Erica Hill Erica Ruth Hill-Yount is an American journalist who, as of 2024, works for CNN. She serves as a primary substitute anchor and a correspondent. She co-anchored '' Weekend Today'' from 2012 to 2016, following work at CBS since 2008. Personal li ...

would re-join the network to host a new, afternoon program from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

later in the year. Later that month, HLN also announced that

Michaela Pereira Michaela Pereira (born August 26, 1970) is a Canadian television personality best known as being a former anchor for KTLA in Los Angeles and for the KTTV FOX11 Los Angeles morning show, ''Good Day LA''. She announced on March 28, 2013, that she ...

, a former anchor of CNN's '' New Day'', would host the new Los Angeles-based morning show ''MichaeLA'' beginning on July 11, 2016. The new program was positioned as a companion to ''Morning Express'', airing from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET (7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. PT), and promoted as an alternative to network morning shows tape-delayed from airings for the East Coast. On June 30, 2016,

announced that she would end her show and leave HLN in October 2016, after nearly a decade with the network. It was replaced by a new program, ''Primetime Justice with

Ashleigh Banfield Ashleigh Dennistoun Banfield (born December 29, 1967) is a Canadian-American journalist and host of ''Banfield'' on the NewsNation network. She is a former host of ''Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield'' and '' Early Start'' on CNN. Education ...

''. Erica Hill's new program, ''On the Story'', premiered on October 10, 2016. In January 2017, HLN announced the January 27 premiere of ''How It Really Happened'', a new documentary series hosted by

Hill Harper Frank Eugene "Hill" Harper (born May 17, 1966) is an American actor and political candidate, who is known for his roles as Dr. Sheldon Hawkes in '' CSI: NY'', Agent Spelman Boyle in '' Limitless'', and Dr. Marcus Andrews in '' The Good Doctor'' ...

reporting on the "most notorious crimes, mysteries, trials, and celebrity tragedies of our time". The series was the first production of CNN's Original Series Development staff that was developed specifically for HLN. On January 30, 2017, it was announced that CNN anchor

Carol Costello Carol Costello (born October 11, 1961) is an American television anchor and former host of ''CNN Newsroom''. In 2017, she left CNN to join sister network HLN, based in Los Angeles. In October 2018, HLN announced that Costello would be let go, ...

would return to HLN to host a new program from Los Angeles. In March 2017, HLN announced that S.E. Cupp would host a new early-evening program on HLN, ''S. E. Cupp Unfiltered'', beginning in June 2017. On May 8, 2017, HLN underwent a rebranding, adopting a new logo and slogan, "News that hits home". The network began to position its news content towards regional headlines, crime, and entertainment stories — leaving CNN to focus upon "in-depth" political coverage and world affairs. In January 2018, HLN began to reintroduce the Headline News brand during its news programming (although HLN remains the network's primary name), and also introduced ''Headlines Now''—a recap of top stories airing every half-hour during its daytime lineup. In August 2018, ''S.E. Cupp Unfiltered'' was quietly moved to CNN as a weekly program on Saturday evenings. On October 16, 2018, HLN cancelled ''Across America with Carol Costello'', ''MichaeLA'', and ''Crime & Justice with Ashleigh Banfield''. With the cancellation of the three shows, ''Morning Express with Robin Meade'' brought back its original five-hour timeslot from 6:00 a.m. to noon, and ''On the Story'' was expanded to three hours and will air from noon until 3:00 p.m. By 2022, ''On the Story'' and other live programming such as ''True Crime Live'' had been cancelled, leaving only one news program each day – ''Morning Express'' on weekdays, and ''Weekend Express'' on Saturday and Sunday mornings – which were followed by

true crime True crime is a genre of non-fiction work in which an author examines a crime, including detailing the actions of people associated with and affected by the crime, and investigating the perpetrator's Motive (law), motives. True crime works often ...

documentaries such as ''

Forensic Files ''Forensic Files'', originally known as ''Medical Detectives'', is an American documentary television program that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness. The show was origin ...

'' for the remainder of the broadcast day.

2022–present: End of original live programming and decline

On December 1, 2022, as part of cost-cutting measures imposed by new owner

(WBD)—formed earlier that year with the merger of previous owner

with

Discovery, Inc. Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1982, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chan ...

—new CNN president

announced that HLN would no longer produce original live news programming effective December 6, and that HLN would merge its operations with sister channel

under Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks head Kathleen Finch. Licht stated that the company was aiming to direct its resources towards CNN's "core news programming and products" going forward. On December 6, the channel began simulcasting '' CNN This Morning'' daily during part of the previous ''Morning Express'' and ''Weekend Express'' timeslots, transitioning to the morning edition of ''

CNN News Central ''CNN News Central'' is a daytime news program carried by the U.S. cable news channel CNN. It premiered on April 3, 2023, as part of a phase-out of CNN's existing rolling news block ''CNN Newsroom'', with its afternoon edition premiering two wee ...

'' as of February 26, 2024; one observer has indicated that HLN is still required to carry some news programming in order to fulfill contracts with cable providers. True crime documentary programs—primarily ''Forensic Files'', though initially including original episodes of series commissioned prior to the restructuring such as ''Real Life Nightmare''—air throughout the rest of the day, along with marathons of

drama series on weekends to promote their availability on the Max streaming service. Some analysts have suggested that this may be just a transitional move towards WBD using the channel space for a different format entirely.

Programming

Prior to its reformulation as a true crime channel, HLN's weekday lineup consisted primarily of rolling news programming during the morning and early-afternoon hours. The final original news programs that aired under this format were '' Morning Express'', a morning news program hosted by Robin Meade with co-anchors Bob Van Dillen, Jennifer Westhoven and

Hines Ward Hines Edward Ward Jr. (born March 8, 1976) is an American American football, football coach and former player who is the wide receivers coach for Arizona State Sun Devils football, Arizona State. He played as a wide receiver in the National Foo ...

, and Saturday and Sunday equivalent ''Weekend Express'', hosted by

Susan Hendricks Susan Hendricks (born August 29, 1973) is a former anchor for HLN and substitute anchor for CNN based in CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta. Hendricks also used to appear occasionally on CNN Pipeline, CNN.com's on-demand broadband news service. ...

, both of which were canceled in December 2022. As of this time, the only remaining live news program on the channel is a simulcast of the morning edition of ''

'', intended primarily to satisfy carriage agreements requiring a quota of live news programming on the channel. HLN's remaining dayparts primarily feature a focus on

programming. The network has extensively aired

rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. The two types of reruns are those that occur during a hiatus and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word "repe ...

s of the former

Court TV Court TV is an American digital broadcast network and former pay-television channel. It was originally launched in 1991 with a focus on crime-themed programs such as true crime documentary series, legal analysis talk shows, and live news cover ...

series ''

''; as of April 2016, the program took up about 58% of the channel's weekly schedule. In March 2017, HLN executive Ken Jautz stated that the network was making an effort to produce more original series; some of the new series that were slated to premiere in 2017, including ''Beyond Reasonable Doubt'', ''Something's Killing Me'', ''

Inside with Chris Cuomo ''Inside with Chris Cuomo'' is an American documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Reco ...

'' (which premiered October 20), and the second season of ''How It Really Happened'' (whose first season premiered January 27, 2017), were designed to complement the popularity of ''Forensic Files'' and other true crime programs, as well as HLN's renewed focus on crime coverage as part of its news programming. After airing new episodes in simulcast with CNN in 2016, ''

The Hunt with John Walsh ''The Hunt with John Walsh'' is an American investigation/documentary series that debuted on CNN on July 13, 2014. The series is hosted by John Walsh. The second season premiered on July 12, 2015, and the third season premiered on June 19, 2016 ...

'' moved to HLN for its fourth season. In February 2020, HLN premiered '' Forensic Files II,'' a revival of ''Forensic Files''. In April 2024, ''How It Really Happened'' moved its first-run episodes to CNN. HLN has occasionally experimented with entertainment programming carrying news and political themes; on February 12, 2015, HLN aired the film '' Glory'' under the banner ''News and a Movie'', which was accompanied by panel discussions on the film's cultural relevance in the present day. Alongside

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...

, HLN also aired encores of special episodes of TBS's

late night talk show A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show, originating in the United States. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It is characterized by sponta ...

Conan Conan may refer to: People * Saint Conan (died 684), bishop of the Isle of Man * Conan of Cornwall (c. 930 – c. 950), bishop of Cornwall * Conan I of Rennes (died 992), duke of Brythonic Brittany * Conan II, Duke of Brittany (died 1066), duke ...

'' set in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

and

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

. In November 2022, HLN aired a marathon of the first four seasons of Warner Bros.-produced political drama ''

The West Wing ''The West Wing'' is an American political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where t ...

'' over the

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

holiday weekend, marking the first time HLN had aired a scripted television series. The network has also, in recent years, served as an additional outlet for

TNT Sports TNT Sports is the brand name for sports television channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world that are owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The name originates from the American cable television ...

broadcasts, including joining its sister channels in simulcasting Turner's golf event franchise '' The Match'', and serving as an overflow channel in the event of conflicts with TBS, TNT, and

. At 4:00 a.m. ET on weekdays, HLN used to broadcast ''CNN Student News'' (formerly known as ''CNN Newsroom'' from its 1989 debut, not to be confused with the current CNN program of the same name), a 10-minute news program designed for broadcast in schools that is produced as part of the

Cable in the Classroom Cable in the Classroom was an American division of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association that assisted the cable television industry in providing educational content to schools. The organization was founded in 1989. A Canadian orga ...

initiative; the program is anchored by Carl Azuz, with reports on the day's news presented in a simplified format (and with stories featuring graphic imagery or adult themes usually left out from the program). It no longer airs on HLN as of 2014, but is still available as a free podcast on CNN's website and

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. On December 16, 2016, the program was renamed ''

CNN 10 Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news ...

''.

Distribution

Due to the channel's tradition of airing rolling news coverage, HLN had become popular with people who may not have time to watch lengthy news reports, and as a fast source of news for public locations like

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

s, bars, and many other places.

Supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

s that carried the discontinued

CNN Checkout Channel CNN Checkout Channel was a satellite television network operated by ActMedia and Turner Broadcasting System through its CNN and Turner Private Networks subsidiaries. The network was a place-based out-of-home advertising service, fed via televis ...

service were offered a feed of Headline News to broadcast on its televisions. The channel's program audio was also

on AM radio stations across the country via

Westwood One Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The co ...

, including a station in Atlanta which was not owned by Turner,

WCNN WCNN (680 AM broadcasting, AM) is a radio station city of license, licensed to Brookhaven, Georgia, North Atlanta and serving the Atlanta metropolitan area, Atlanta-area radio market. It is owned by Dickey Broadcasting and airs a sports radio ra ...

(today a

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

station with the same call letters), which broadcast from CNN Center with local contributions; all of CNN's U.S. radio operations (including the HLN simulcast) were discontinued on April 1, 2012, as part of Westwood One's dissolution into

Dial Global Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The c ...

. HLN's audio feed was carried on

XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XM) was one of the three satellite radio ( SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable ...

channel 123 and

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio ( SDARS) service that operated in the United States and Canada. Sirius launched in 2002, and primarily competed with XM Satellite Radio, until the two services merged in 2008 to form Sirius XM. Li ...

channel 116. Since the merger of both entities as

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merge ...

, it is now carried on channel 117. From February 2019 to May 2023, the audio simulcast was also distributed on

Entercom Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corp., it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning over 220 radio stations across 47 media ...

's Radio.com (now

Audacy Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio Computing platform, platform developed by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a Recommender system, mus ...

) website and app. On July 18, 2011, HLN launched

TV Everywhere TV Everywhere (also known as authenticated streaming or authenticated video on-demand) refers to a type of American subscription business model wherein access to streaming video content from a television channel requires users to "authenticate" ...

streaming through the CNN

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

for subscribers on participating television providers.

Broadcast syndication

From its inception, Turner Broadcasting had syndicated portions of CNN2/Headline News's schedule to local television stations throughout the country—typically in half-hour or hour-long blocks—for broadcast in various timeslots of their choice (usually in morning, daytime or late access slots during the network's early years). Most of them were commercial outlets, including both major network affiliates and

independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...

s (some like

WSVN WSVN (channel 7) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Serving as the flagship station of locally based Sunbeam Television, it has studios on the 79th Street Causeway in North Bay Villag ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, following its January 1989 affiliation switch from NBC to

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

, even carried it as a stand-in evening network newscast), though a few

public television Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...

stations (such as

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

member

WTTW WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

) carried blocks of its newscasts into the late 1980s. WTBS, initially to encourage its national viewers to ask their local cable provider to carry the network full-time, aired a half-hour simulcast of Headline News each morning at 5:30 a.m. ET from the latter's inception until 1996 (a separate simulcast aired locally at 6:00 a.m. in the Atlanta market). Abbreviated Headline News broadcasts would also occasionally serve as filler (bookended by the ''NewsWatch'' intro and outro) before the start of movie presentations or live sporting events. (

WPCH-TV WPCH-TV (channel 17), branded as Peachtree TV, is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by locally based Gray Media alongside CBS affiliate and company flagship WANF (channel 46), and l ...

, which fully separated its Atlanta signal from the national TBS feed in October 2007, aired a simulcast of the first hour of ''Morning Express'' daily at 6:00 a.m. until

Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned newspapers, magazines, television stations, and websites. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more than ...

—which had been managing the station alongside CBS-affiliated sister WGCL-TV (now

WANF WANF (channel 46) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is the flagship property of locally based Gray Media and is co-owned with CW affiliate WPCH-TV (channel 17) and low-power, Class A Telemun ...

) since 2011—completed its purchase of WPCH from Turner/Time Warner in 2017, replacing it with a simulcast of WGCL's local morning newscast.) The early 1990s saw the culmination of Headline News' supplemental syndication model as many commercial stations (particularly affiliates of ABC,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

) that were transitioning over to instituting 24-hour broadcasts began taking feeds of the channel's overnight programming, in lieu of scheduling syndicated entertainment programs, movies or

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...

s to fill their previous nightly

sign-off A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonwealth countries exce ...

periods. Headline News had gained competition in that market during that approximate timeframe through the November 1989 launch of

All News Channel All News Channel (ANC) was an American satellite television news channel and broadcast syndication service operated as a joint venture between Viacom and CONUS Communications, itself a division of Hubbard Broadcasting. Launched on November ...

, a hybrid syndicated news service and satellite television network (operated by the

Hubbard Broadcasting Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radio broadcasting corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Stanley E. Hubbard. The corporation has broadcast outlets scattered across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri ...

–

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2005), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Pa ...

joint venture CONUS Communications) that also began syndicating its programming feed to stations seeking to fill local airtime in overnight time periods as well as other dayparts. In later years, even after the " Big Three" networks launched their own overnight news programs—'' Nightside'' on NBC, ''

World News Now ''World News Now'' (or WNN) is an American overnight news broadcast seen on ABC and ABC News Live. Airing during the early morning hours each Monday through Friday, the program features a mix of general news and off-beat stories, along with ...

'' on ABC, and ''

Up to the Minute ''CBS News Roundup'' is an American overnight news program broadcast by CBS News 24/7 and CBS. Airing during the early morning hours each Monday through Friday, the program is anchored Jessi Mitchell. CBS has carried an overnight news block ...

'' on CBS—over the course of the 1991–92 season in the wake of the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

(which they developed coincidentally to compete with CNN, which was lauded for its round-the-clock war coverage in early 1991), Headline News programming continued to air on many of their affiliates as a complement to the network broadcasts; besides this, it also provided them with an overnight news option during the weekend, when no such option was offered (outside of ''Nightside'' during its 1991–98 run). The supplemental broadcast distribution ended following the 2005 introduction of the "Headline Prime" block, forcing many affiliates (including NBC stations that lost a network news option following the September 1998 cancellation of ''Nightside'') to fill airtime previously reserved for Headline News broadcasts with syndicated and paid programming.

International

Until 1995, much of Headline News' programming was simulcast on sister channel CNN International; the channel's news ticker was not displayed on CNN International during its simulcasts of Headline News programming. London's

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

, as part of their '' Thames Into The Night'' overnight service, briefly aired a half-hour of Headline News at 5:30 AM in 1988, before ITN launched their own early morning bulletin later that year. Beginning in the mid-2000s, the channel has been available in certain countries outside the United States, particularly in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

. Although the international feed's programming lineup is identical to the U.S. feed, program teasers, stock market figures, and weather forecasts for Asian and Latin American, Middle East and North African cities are used as break fillers in lieu of US-oriented commercials. In Canada, the American feed of HLN is available on most cable and satellite providers, as it is authorized for carriage as a foreign cable television service by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

; save for a few differences it features the same programming schedule as that seen in the United States, although some programs are blacked out to protect other rightsholders. An hour of ''Morning Express'' aired on tape-delay during the overnight hours on the cable/satellite feed of CNN Philippines.

High definition

HLN broadcasts in

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...

1080i In high-definition television (HDTV) and video display technology, 1080i is a video display format with 1080 lines of vertical resolution and Interlaced video, interlaced scanning method. This format was once a standard in HDTV. It was particular ...

resolution format. It is available nationally on nearly all pay-TV providers within the United States, and in Canada on satellite provider

Bell Satellite TV Bell Satellite TV (; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Bell Fibe TV, Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television service a ...

, which downconverts the HD feed's picture resolution to

720p 720p (720 lines progressive) is a progressive HD signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HD (1.78:1). All major HD broadcasting standards (such as SMPTE 292M) includ ...

Notable on-air staff

Final anchors and reporters

* Jean Casarez (HLN & CNN) * Allison Chinchar (HLN & CNN) *

Coy Wire Coy Michael Wire (born November 7, 1978) is an American television anchor and correspondent as well as a former professional football player in the National Football League (NFL). Since 2015, he has worked for CNN as a sports anchor and correspo ...

(HLN & CNN) ;Notes # (HLN) – ''Indicates anchor/reporter who appeared exclusively on HLN'' # (HLN & CNN) – ''Indicates anchor/reporter who appears on both HLN and CNN''

Former anchors and reporters

Jane Akre Jane Akre is an American journalist best known for the whistleblower lawsuit by herself and her former husband, Steve Wilson (reporter), Steve Wilson, against Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox station WTVT in Tampa, Florida. Akre and Wilson are featur ...

* Rudi Bakhtiar (now director of communications for the International Campaign for Human Rights in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

; serves as senior advisor at

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

) *

Brooke Baldwin Lauren Brooke Baldwin (born July 12, 1979) is an American journalist, television host, and author who was at CNN from 2008 until 2021. Baldwin hosted ''CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin'', which aired from 3 to 4p.m. ET on weekdays. Early lif ...

(now with

NewsNation NewsNation is an American cable news network owned by Nexstar Media Group. Known for most of its history as Superstation WGN before becoming WGN America in 2008, it relaunched on March 1, 2021, as a cable news network named after its flagship n ...

) *

Bobbie Battista Barbara Ann "Bobbie" Battista (July 23, 1952 – March 3, 2020) was an American journalist and a prominent newscaster on CNN. During her 20-year career with the cable news company, Battista anchored numerous programs on CNN, CNN Headline News, an ...

(deceased) *

Michelle Bonner Michelle Bonner is an American journalist and businesswoman. Career A native of Marblehead, Massachusetts, Bonner graduated from Northeastern University with a bachelor's degree in English in 1994. She began her broadcasting career at WCHS-T ...

* Mike Brooks * Richard Brown *

Richelle Carey Richelle Carey (born October 13, 1971) is an American broadcast journalist. She was an anchor on Al Jazeera English and was previously an anchor for Al Jazeera America. Carey was previously a news anchor for HLN and correspondent for its Prime ...

(now at

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is ...

) *

Helen Casey Helen Casey (born 6 February 1974 in Stockport) is a British rower. She rowed in the Women's Lightweight Double Sculls at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics and studied at Worcester College, Oxford. She first started to row in her final year ...

* Virginia Cha (now at

KGTV KGTV (channel 10) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on Air Way in the Riverview-Webster section of San Diego, and its ...

) * Roby Chavez * Jill Chernekoff *

(now at

WSB-TV WSB-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Cox Media Group, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to rad ...

) *

Brian Christie Brian Christie (died January 17, 2021) was an American television news journalist, talk show host, and anchor. Career He was host and executive producer of ''The Boomer Show''. For over a decade, he was a primary news anchor and reporter for ...

Leesa Clark Leesa Clark Stone is a television journalist and former news anchor. She originally worked for Honolulu, HI-based TV station KITV during the 1980s as a news reporter and anchor. Clark was also the reporter for KITV's "Working 4 You" franchise. She ...

(retired) *

Adrianna Costa Adrianna Costa (born Adrianna Heber; June 26, 1981) is an American television personality best known as an entertainment reporter and a reality show host. Biography Heber, whose mother's name is Anita Garza,(Dec. 22, 2005): "Agoura High Alumna Get ...

Natasha Curry Natasha Curry is the former anchor for HLN's ''Weekend Express with Natasha Curry''. She also served as a replacement on the same network, when necessary, for Robin Meade on ''Morning Express with Robin Meade''. She joined the network, then kno ...

* Christine Davidson *

Denise Dillon Denise Dillon (born September 22, 1973) is the head women's basketball coach at Villanova. Career She returned to her alma mater from Drexel, where she was the program's most successful coach since it moved to Division I in 1982–83. She had ...

(now at

WAGA-TV WAGA-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, serving as the market's Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains st ...

) * Bud Elliott (now at KJWL) *

Marc Fein Marc Fein (born Marc Alan Fein; October 21, 1967 in Miami, Florida) is a sports journalist, sports news anchor, and television sports studio host, formerly one of the main studio hosts for the NBA TV show, '' NBA Gametime Live''. He is also the ...

* Holly Firfer * Sasha Foo (now at

KUSI KUSI-TV (channel 51) is an independent television station in San Diego, California, United States. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KSWB-TV (channel 69). The two stations share studios on Viewridge Avenue (near I- ...

) * Peter Ford (retired) * Judy Fortin (now at NewsCertified Exchange) *

* Courtney George * Lori Geary (now at

) *

David Goodnow David Clay Goodnow (born October 20, 1939, in Vincennes, Indiana), is an American journalist known for his work as an anchor on ''CNN Headline News''. Biography He is a 1957 graduate of Vincennes Lincoln High School,Don Harrison Don Harrison (August 8, 1936 – May 2, 1998) was an anchor on CNN Headline News from 1982 until his death from renal cancer in 1998. He was a member of the original team of anchors when Headline News went on the air for the first time as "CNN2" ...

(deceased) *

Pat Harvey Pat Harvey (born November 13, 1955) is an American broadcast journalist. She joined KCAL 9 in Los Angeles in 1989, and in 2010 began co-anchoring for KCAL sister station KCBS news at 5, 6 & 11 PM. She is the longest-running anchor in prime ti ...

(now at

KCBS-TV KCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS Los Angeles, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship station of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the n ...

) *

Kara Henderson Kara Henderson (born June 27, 1973) is an American sports media personality, most recently for the NFL Network. At NFLN, Henderson provided in-depth interviews, pregame and postgame reports and sideline reports for a variety of shows across the ne ...

(now at

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League NTP and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and N ...

) *

(returned to CNN as a fill-in anchor and national correspondent) * Micah Johnson * Cindy Klose *

Melissa Knowles Melissa is a feminine given name. The name comes from the Greek word μέλισσα (''mélissa''), "bee", which in turn comes from μέλι (''meli''), "honey". In Hittite, ''melit'' signifies "honey". Melissa is a common variant form, with ...

* Sachi Koto (now on the board of directors at The Japan-America Society of Georgia) * Natisha Lance *

Nicole Lapin Nicole Lapin (born March 7, 1984) is an American television news anchor, author, and businesswoman. She is known for being an American news anchor on CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg. Lapin also served as a finance correspondent for ''Morning Joe'' on MS ...

(now on

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

) * Bob Losure (deceased) *

Richard Lui Richard Lui () is an American author, journalist, and filmmaker. He anchors for MSNBC and NBC News. Lui is currently a breaking news anchor for NBC and MSNBC, broadcasting from 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. prior to th ...

(now at

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

) * Shyann Malone * Miguel Marquez (now at

) * Cami McCormick (now at

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

) * Janice McDonald * Robin Meade *

Chloe Melas Chloe Elizabeth Melas is an American journalist currently serving as an entertainment correspondent for NBC. She was previously a reporter for CNN from 2016 to 2023. Prior to her time at CNN, she was the senior entertainment reporter for Hollywoo ...

(now at NBC News) * Dave Michaels * Kris Osborn *

Christina Park Christina Park is an American television news anchor. She previously anchored the news at 6 and 10 p.m. on the weekends on Fox 5 New York WNYW in New York City, as well as filling in during the weekly newscasts. Her former co-anchor alongside he ...

Christi Paul Christi Paul is an American journalist and former weekday news anchor for HLN and weekend anchor for CNN's '' New Day''. Biography Paul was raised in a Christian family in Bellevue, Ohio. She graduated from the University of Toledo whe ...

(now at

KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned a ...

) *

Elizabeth Prann Elizabeth Prann is an anchor/reporter for NewsNation, formerly of HLN and the Fox News Channel. Prann previously worked from July 2008 to January 2010 as a reporter, fill-in anchor and producer for the Panama City affiliate of NBC, WJHG. She join ...

(HLN) *

Jacque Reid Jacqueline Elaine "Jacque" Reid is an American television and radio personality and journalist. She was the lead news anchor of ''The BET Nightly News'' from 2001 to 2005. Reid is currently one of the co-hosts of the NBC New York affiliate show c ...

* Marilyn Ringo *

(retired) * Thomas Roberts *

Lynne Russell Lynne Russell is an American journalist and author. She was the first woman to solo anchor a prime time network nightly newscast as the host of CNN Headline News from 1983 to 2001, as well as six years as co-host of ''The Week in Review'' with B ...

* Andy Scholes (still at CNN) * Lynn Smith *

Kate Snow Kate Snow (born June 10, 1969) is an American television journalist for NBC News, serving as Senior National Correspondent to various NBC platforms, including ''Today (American TV program), Today'', ''NBC Nightly News'', ''Dateline NBC'', and MSNB ...

(now at NBC News) * Linda Stouffer (now at WSB-TV) *

Andrea Thompson Rebecca Andrea Thompson (born January 6, 1960)
Film Reference. Retrieved May 19, 2013. is an Ameri ...

Nischelle Turner Nischelle Renee Turner is the co-host of ''Entertainment Tonight'' (2014–present) and '' Secret Celebrity Renovation'' (2021–present). Previously she was former entertainment correspondent for HLN's ''Showbiz Tonight'' and CNN and an entertai ...

(now at ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Par ...

'' in Los Angeles, California) * Bob Van Dillen * Lyn Vaughn (now at

Troy University Troy University is a public university in Troy, Alabama, United States. It was founded in 1887 as Troy State Normal School within the Alabama State University System, and is now the flagship university of the Troy University System. It was one ...

) * Jennifer Westhoven * Jim Wilkerson * Glenda Webb *

Rafer Weigel Rafer Weigel (born May 5, 1969) is an American broadcast journalist who most recently was an early morning weekday news anchor and general assignment reporter at WFLD-Channel 32 in Chicago. Formerly, he was the weekend sports anchor and reporte ...

(now at

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

) *

Van Earl Wright Van Earl Wright (born January 27, 1962) is an American television sportscaster, news anchor and journalist with over 30 years of national and local experience. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Wright is known for a homespun deli ...

(now owner/president at Wright Stuff Productions) * Jay Young (deceased) * Charles Zewe (now at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

)

Former talk show hosts

Brooke Anderson Brooke Victoria Anderson (born May 13, 1978) is a former co-host of '' The Insider'', and is now a correspondent for ''Entertainment Tonight''. Previously, she was a culture and entertainment anchor and producer for CNN and served as co-host for ...

(now at ''

'') *

(now at TheBlaze TV) *

Joy Behar Josephine Victoria "Joy" Behar (; née Occhiuto; born October 7, 1942) is an American comedian, television host, and actress. She co-hosts the ABC talk show '' The View'', on which she has appeared since the beginning of the series. For her wor ...

(returned to ''

The View ''The View'' is an American talk show created by broadcast journalist Barbara Walters. , in its 28th season, the show has aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC as part of the network's ABC Daytime, daytime programming block since August ...

'') * S. E. Cupp (still with CNN) *

(now with

Fox Nation Fox Nation is an American subscription video on demand service. Announced on February 20, 2018, and launching on November 27 of that year, it is a companion to Fox News Channel carrying programming of interest to its audience, including origin ...

) * A. J. Hammer *

(now retired from long-form radio and television) *

Drew Pinsky David Drew Pinsky (born September 4, 1958), commonly known as Dr. Drew, is an American media personality, internist, and addiction medicine specialist. He hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show ''Loveline'' from the show's inception ...

Jane Velez-Mitchell Jane Velez-Mitchell is a television and social media journalist and author with specialties in vegan lifestyles, animal rights, addiction, and social justice. She is a New York Times bestselling author, former CNN Headline News (HLN) host, an ...

References

External links

* {{Sirius XM Channels 1982 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Television channels and stations established in 1982 English-language television stations in the United States XM Satellite Radio channels Sirius Satellite Radio channels Warner Bros. Discovery networks Sirius XM Radio channels * CNN