Jake Tapper Announced as New Host of State of the Union

CNN (DStv 401) has announced that Senior Washington Correspondent, Jake Tapper, will take up the position of permanent host of their Sunday politics show, State of the Union.

This follows months after long time host, Candy Crowley, unceremoniously left CNN late last year, with many inside sources claiming she was pushed out.

Since then, the Sunday show, which airs live in the afternoon here in South Africa followed by a repeat later at night, has been hosted by a rotating group of guest hosts, all of which hold positions within CNN currently.

 Tapper joined CNN at the end of 2012 from the US's ABC News and has been covering news from Washington, D.C. for over 14 years. Early in 2013 he launched The Lead, a daily news show on CNN in the US that is often critically acclaimed as being the best news show on cable news.

 “I am thrilled that Jake will take on this additional role at such a pivotal time in the election cycle,” CNN president Jeff Zucker said in a statement. “He has the perfect combination of skills that make him uniquely qualified — he’s a relentless reporter, a gifted storyteller, and a terrific interviewer who doesn’t stop until he gets answers. We are lucky to have him on both ‘The Lead’ [which airs on the US version of CNN] and ‘State of the Union.'”


He is not entirely unknown to South African viewers though. Whenever there is major breaking news events from the U.S. or around the world, he would often step in as anchor, and during last year's US mid term elections he co-anchored the channel's coverage with Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer.

Jake Tapper takes over as the new host of CNN's State of the Union in June.