In the channel's early years, a two-minute recap of the hour's top stories, the 'CNN Headlines,' would run after the sports segment. Another regular feature, the ' Hollywood Minute', was often fitted-in after the 'Headline Sports' segment.

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. This 'Headline News Wheel' format featured: :00 - national and world news :15 - business and personal finance reports ('Dollars and Sense') :20 - sports scores and headlines ('Headline Sports') and :25 - lifestyle reports (from :30, this news wheel was repeated all over again). 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. Following a preview reel by original CNN anchor Lou Waters and an introduction by founder and then-Turner Broadcasting CEO Ted Turner, Chuck Roberts (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. on December 31, 1981, as a preview for cable providers that had not yet reached agreements to carry CNN2. The channel's launch was simulcast nationwide on sister networks CNN and Superstation WTBS (now simply TBS), starting at 11:45 p.m. The channel was launched at midnight Eastern Time on January 1, 1982, as CNN2. 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. Television library.Īs of September 2018, HLN was available to approximately 88.7 million households (92.5 percent of pay television subscribers) in the United States. The network's schedule outside of that has primarily featured true crime programs as before, in addition to reruns of crime and legal dramas from the Warner Bros. In December 2022, new CNN president Chris Licht announced that HLN would abandon original live news programming entirely as part of a reorganization, with HLN now being overseen by ID's staff, and news programming limited to a simulcast of CNN This Morning for contractual reasons. Discovery, HLN became a sister to Discovery's true-crime channel Investigation Discovery (ID). With the 2022 merger of CNN parent WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. Under CNN president Jeff Zucker, 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. In the mid-2010s, HLN repositioned itself as a social media-centric network, highlighting headlines popular on social networks, and introducing social media-themed shows. In 2005, HLN began to diverge from this format and air more personality-based programs, including a primetime block featuring pundits such as Glenn Beck and legal commentator Nancy Grace.

The channel was originally launched on Januby Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News or CNN Headline News), a sister network to CNN that broadcast a looping, half-hour cycle of segments covering various news topics. Owned by CNN Global, the network primarily carries true-crime programming, as well as limited live news programming. YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, DirecTV Stream

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