CNN Talk Axed as London Redundancies Kick In

CNN International’s live debate programme, CNN Talk hosted by Max Foster and broadcast from its London studios, will become a victim of savage cuts at the network.

CNN Talk contributor Iain Dale confirmed on Twitter that his appearance on the show Thursday would be his last, and that the show would go off the air after its airing on Friday.

Last month, I wrote about this subject for News on News, and reported on planned cuts by CNN at its London headquarters, however at that time it was not clear whether CNN Talk would be affected.

As we now know, CNN Talk is not only affected, but is being axed in its entirety.

The move to cull the popular live show, produced outside of the United States of America, doesn’t really make much in the way of sense for a network that has historically gone out of its way to distance itself from its US counterpart.

However, more and more, CNN International is beginning to simulcast US programming, and reducing the numbers of live hours per day that it produces itself.

It remains unclear whether CNN International’s London headquarters operation of downsizing is anything to do with the struggles its sister american station is having in both ratings and perception.  For some time now CNN International has started to struggle against international stalwart BBC World News and to some extent, the availability of Sky News International.

This article was originally written for News on News and has been republished here as part of Kevin Coy’s journalistic and editorial repertoire.