CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt is an American early-morning news program broadcast by CNN. Currently anchored by Kasie Hunt, the program premiered on January 2, 2012, as Early Start—a companion to CNN's then-new morning show Starting Point airing from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. ET.
On February 26, 2024, the program adopted the CNN This Morning title (which had been vacated by CNN's former weekday morning show) and relocated from New York City to CNN's Washington bureau.
By the end of its run in 2011, CNN's American Morning had fallen behind in the morning ratings. Executive vice president Ken Jautz, who joined in September 2010, decided to revamp the network's morning lineup by canceling the show altogether and replacing it with two new programs less focused on national politics than cable rivals Fox & Friends and Morning Joe.[1]
Along with Starting Point, Early Start replaced American Morning, which aired from 2001 to 2011. Ashleigh Banfield, who co-anchored with Sambolin until July 13, 2012, had since moved to the 12pm timeslot.
The new morning lineup was announced in November 2011 with Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin confirmed as anchors of the 5-7 a.m. program, while Soledad O'Brien joined as anchor of the 7-9 a.m. program.[1] Banfield joined from ABC News while Sambolin was hired from Chicago NBC station WMAQ-TV.[2] The name of the 5-7 a.m. program was announced as Early StartonTwitter on December 29.[3] The program carried the tagline "News From A to Z", in reference to the co-anchors' first initials. On May 30, 2012, CNN announced ABC's John Berman would join Banfield and Sambolin as co-anchor.[4] On June 26, 2012, CNN announced Banfield was leaving Early Start in July to anchor the 11am hour of CNN Newsroom.[5] On December 13, 2013, Sambolin left the show and was replaced by Christine Romans in January 2014.[6]
There was also a weekend broadcast from 6-7 a.m. ET, and was alternated between Poppy Harlow, Miguel Marquez, Alison Kosik, Randi Kaye and Victor Blackwell. It merely served as a lead-in to the subsequent five-hour CNN Newsroom, both anchored by the same host or duo. On June 22, 2013, due to the launch of New Day, it was decided that Weekend Early Start would be cancelled in favor of New Day Saturday and New Day Sunday.
One week leading up to the 2016 United States presidential election, Early Start ran from 3am to 5am ET, followed by an extended version of New Day from 5am to 9am ET. This schedule then becomes a standard for CNN during breaking news events.
In January 2017, John Berman left the program to anchor CNN Newsroom at 9am ET. CNN announced Dave Briggs, formerly of NBC Sports and Fox News, would succeed him. In December 2019, Briggs signed off from co-hosting the program.[7] The next month, in January 2020, Laura Jarrett became the new co-host.[8]
On July 1, 2022, Laura Jarrett co-anchored Early Start for the last time before departing for maternity leave, leaving Romans as the program's sole host.[9] On July 28, 2023, Romans announced her departure from CNN.[10] In August 2023, CNN announced that Kasie Hunt would become the new host of Early Start; she had previously hosted MSNBC's competing program Way Too Early prior to her 2021 departure to CNN.[11][12]
In February 2024, concurrent with the cancellation of CNN This Morning, new CNN CEO Mark Thompson announced that Early Start would return to a two-hour format (after having been shortened to an hour), relocate from New York to CNN's Washington bureau (with support from staff in Atlanta), and be rebranded as CNN This Morning.[13][14] The changes took effect on February 26, 2024, with the program being retitled CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt, and reusing the on-air presentation that was used by CNN This Morning.[15][16]
On the January 9, 2012, edition of the show, Banfield and Sambolin attempted to call comedian Chuck Nice as part of the "Wake 'Em Up" segment. Instead, the show dialed the wrong number and woke up an unknown man.[17] The episode was skewered by Jon StewartonThe Daily Show, who also mocked the format of the segment.[18]
