In case you have been watching Quest means Business (CNNi, 10pm, DStv 401) and wondering where regular anchor, Richard Quest, has been all week, well, he is here in SOuth Africa, attending the Tourism Indaba taking place in the country.
Today, May 7th, he moderated a panel at the Indaba, which was also carried live on eNCA (DStv 403).
On his experience in the country, he tweeted about how he was enjoying the experience and that he felt 'totally safe' in the country. Quest is actually a frequent traveler (wow the word has one 'l') to SA.
The domestic news channels are covering the Indaba with reporters on the ground, including Jody Jacobs for eNCA.
The excellent South African financial anchor/reporter, Eleni Giokos, will be filling in for Richard Quest on Quest Means Business this entire week.
'Questie' is on assignment this week, trying to fly around the world in 8 days using only budget airlines.
Throughout the day today, former colleagues of Eleni have been congratulating her and wishing her well, including Bronwyn Nielsen, who worked with her at CNBC Africa tweeting, "@EleniGiokos to host @questCNN live from New York this week. Fantastic for Eleni and Africa! Congrats - break a leg!" Also, Nikiwe Bikitsha, who worked with Eleni at eNCA tweeted her support, "Don't miss @EleniGiokos in for @richardquest on CNN all week at 11pm CAT live from New York. A proud moment for #Africa #SouthAfrica."
This also means that CNN will have two South African anchors on air this week, with Robyn Curnow anchoring iDesk.
This fill in is definitely not coincidental. Something is definitely brewing behind the scenes as CNN usually has a whole hierarchy of fill ins for Quest, including anchors and reporters based in New York or the London studio. So flying someone across the world to do the show usually means there is a major meeting with management that the anchor has or that this is a screen test for something bigger. This follows the same pattern of Robyn Curnow flying to Atlanta to fill in for other anchors before receiving a weekday slot of her own.
Quest Means Business airs on CNN (DStv 401) weekdays at 11pm CAT.
CNN today, 15 February announced that it will be rolling out its commerce-centric news brand, CNNMoney, internationally.
The move comes 20 months after CNN bought out Money Magazine and Fortune's stake in the business (the business was a joint venture between the three Time Warner-owned enterprises) back in June 2014, with CNN president, Jeff Zucker, promising better synergies of the brand across all of CNN's properties, of which CNNi (DStv 401) is one.
As CNN has been cutting costs across the business, one division that has constantly been expanding is CNNMoney, which today announced further new hires in London, Dubai, New Delhi and Hong Kong.
“By uniting our portfolio of U.S. and international business reporting under the CNNMoney brand, we now offer an even more compelling product to globally-minded consumers hungry for a smart, accessible business and financial news experience – everywhere in the world,” said CNN International senior vice president and general manager Mike McCarthy in a statement.
When the CNNMoney brand was introduced on the US feed of CNN, various on air programmes and segments were rebranded. The same now applies to the international expansion:
World Business Today (4pm CAT, DStv 401) is now CNNMoney with Maggie Lake
The Business View with Nina dos Santos is now CNN Money View, which is a rather odd name.
Also, you can expect a few tweaks on Quest Means Business.
There have also been new titles allocated to various personalities:
Richard Quest, anchor of Quest Means Business (daily, 23:00 CAT) becomes the division's editor-at-large
John Deftarios is now the CNNMoney Emerging Markets Editor
Eleni Giokos is now formally the African business correspondent based in Johannesburg
Anderson Cooper, host of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 (Tuesday to Saturday morning at 3am), and comedienne, Kathy Griffin, will once again ring in the new year in the US's Eastern Time Zone, live from Time Square.
Last year the show ran for the longest time in its history, kicking off at 9pm (US Eastern Time) and averaged just over 2 million viewers. Back then, they joked on air as they had no idea how they would fill all the extra time. Well these jokes were not heard by CNN's higher ups as the show will now start yet another hour earlier at 8pm US Eastern Time and run to 12:30am New Years Day (That is, 3am South African Time on Friday morning to 7:30am). The major US New Year's Eve Show, Dick Clarke's New Years Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest (that is the actual long name), also starts at 8pm US Time, but the difference is they are stacking the show with 38 musical performances whilst Cooper and Griffin will have none.
I doubt filling the time for these two is that hard though. They are real life friends and that chemistry shines through the broadcast, especially Cooper's reaction to Griffin's often too edgy jokes. The big joke last year was when Griffin dyed Cooper's hair on air without him knowing.
They will not be alone, however. Richard Quest will provide coverage from inside the crowd in Time Square, whilst Poppy Harlow will be all the way in Rio. Randi Kaye will provide coverage from Memphis and Gary Tuchman in Hershey, Pa.
Cooper and Griffin sign off from their marathon broadcast at 12:30am (7:30am here in SA) when Brooke Baldwin and Don Lemon (host of CNN Tonight, Tuesday through Saturday morning at 4am) will take over the broadcast from New Orleans to usher in the New Year in the US's Central Time Zone.
Christmas time is a time for family and friends but the news cycle continues, no matter how slow it goes.
On Christmas 2014, CNN (DStv 401) had a mere 10 hours of live news on their schedule. When you thought it could not go any lower, it does indeed with them only having a mere 6 hours of live content on Christmas day this year (a quarter of a day), with the rest of the time filled with magazine shows, review shows and two airings of the CNN Heores awards in its entirety [Amount of hours measured using 24 hours in the US Eastern Time zone where the channel is head quartered].
Zain Asher, who has been on air this entire week worked extra hours in addition to her own and so did business anchor, Richard Quest, who did quite a few editions of CNN Newsroom. Quest, who has been on air every Christmas for the last few years (to allow those that celebrate the day to do so and to have a nice day filled with feel feel good stories) even has a Christmas tradition of his own whereby he cracks Christmas crackers on air with the behind the scenes personalities, seen below:
On eNCA, the Christmas schedule once again started an hour later, allowing the anchors to sleep in an extra hour, this year being Gareth Edwards who got to do breakfast show duty this year. Gareth had been anchoring News Night in place for Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti who deserve the award for easiest schedule in news considering Gareth fills in for both of them most Fridays and now the whole festive week. Thulasizwe Simelane stood in for Cathy Mohlahlana and Joanne Josephs from 9am onward. Florence Letoaba did News Night
ANN7 had weekend Vuka Africa anchor Liezle Wilson anchoring on Christmas and, as they did last year, broadcast a live Church sermon to commemorate the day. In prime time Chante Janjies anchored, which she really did not want to do, as she tweeted. She ended after ANN7 Prime and the channel just rebroadcast her same news bulletin for the rest of the evening.
Morning Live, which was broadcast on SABC News Channel only and not SABC 2 had some live crossings to usual newsreader Ayanda Allie Paine who was capturin the festive spirit from outside the studio whilst Vaylen Kirtley held things down in the studio. The channel, once again, had the most (live) news on Christmas.
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On Christmas Eve, both eNCA and CNNi broke with tradition and chose not to cover the Pope's Christmas Eve Mass at all, even though they had in previous years. This year, the broadcast also made the jump from SABC3 to SABC2, the public broadcaster's channel featuring the most festive content. ANN7 also broadcast a large portion of the event live, but did so using a broadband connection which obviously is not even close to being as good as a high quality satellite connection as SABC2 had.
CNNi, DStv 401, has announced their broadcast plans for the May 7th UK Elections.
The channel's coverage on the evening will be anchored by The World Right Now's Hala Gorani and also Max Foster who will be anchoring from across the Thames from the Palace of Westminster, providing viewers with on the ground coverage on what is to be the UK's most hotly contested election in quite a few years.
The eccentric Richard Quest from Quest Means Business will fly to London and provide rolling reportage from the top of one of London's signature open top buses as it travels around the city to voter hotspots picking up a diverse group of guests en route.
Chief International Correspondent, Christiane Amanpour will be stationed outside the House of Parliament where she will be joined by analysts who will be providing commentary throughout the night.
The Business View's Nina dos Santos will be in the comfort of the CNN London studio from which she will be doing the number crunching and touch screen analysis that is now standard with the coverage of any election.
Lastly, correspondent Phil Black will be stationed in Edinbugh providing insight as things unfold for the Scottish national Party.
[Noticeably absent from the coverage is Becky Anderson]
The coverage will go right through the night, preempting all scheduled programming including all programmes anchored by the anchors of the covergae and also shows like CNN Today with Michael Holmes and Amara Walker and also Anderson Cooper 360, which airs at 2am.
But before then, CNN will be broadcasting a special interactive debate with the contenders in the election this Friday evening, April 24th, anchored by Christiane Amanpour and Max Foster.
Conservative peer Baroness Neville Jones, Labour’s Chris Bryant, Liberal
Democrat peer Lord Steel, UKIP’s Louise Bours, and the SNP’s Humza
Yousaf will participate in the debate.
The debate will take place at the McLaren Technology Group’s new
Thought Leadership Centre, in front of a specially selected audience
designed to represent the UK electorate.
As part of the debate the studio audience will be invited to give its
take on key issues, with the results displayed in real time on the
debate floor. Topics such as immigration, Europe, the health service,
the economy, and Britain’s place in the world are up for discussion.
Gill Penlington, Director of Programming, EMEA, at CNN International
said in a statement: “There is huge interest in the UK election from an international
perspective, especially with so many issues that transcend this
country’s borders. This debate is the perfect chance to explore those
issues, as well as get a genuinely representative picture of the UK
electorate’s views on them. It should be a fascinating debate at a key
point in the campaign.”
The debate airs this Friday on CNNi (DStv 401) at 8pm.
