In its ongoing effort to focus on news over entertainment in its morning show, CNN is building a new set for American Morning that will be located in CNN's newsroom.
The show currently airs live from a streetside studio in the Time Life building in midtown Manhattan. But starting Aug. 22, it will move to CNN’s headquarters at the Time Warner Center on the Upper West Side and air out of a temporary studio while the newsroom set is constructed over the next few months.
The move, which brings together all of CNN’s New York-based shows under one roof, is meant to further emphasize American Morning as a news deestination to counterprogram, music, cooking and other entertainment fare on other morning shows.
To that end, CNN named space correspondent Miles O’Brien to co-anchor the show with Soledad O’Brien in June and moved colorful commentary from Jack Cafferty to the afternoon, where he is now a regular on Wolf Blitzer's new digs, The Situation Room.
American Morning, which airs weekdays between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. increased its audience in news’ target demo – 25-54 – by 12% in July and its total audience by 5%, averaging 495,000 total viewers for the month. CNN grew 3% in total-day viewership in July, averaging 436,000 viewers.
