CNN overhauls ‘This Morning’ graphics

“CNN This Morning” debuted updated graphics and a new studio setup Aug. 12, 2024.

The show dropped the wood-themed tan, white, red and yellow look that originally debuted in November 2022, with the original iteration of the program. 

Instead, bright yellow and blue are used, while the CNN logo is typically used to add red to the mix.

Graphics also now use a glassy, circular theme suggestive of sunrise, including repeating concentric rings. Many of these elements rotate around each other in various forms, including stacks or side-by-side.

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The show has retained the original look’s logo typography as well as its use of 3D effects, though it’s been smoothed out a bit.

Overall, the new design is an improvement over the old design, though both designs still feel a bit dated. However, it is in line with much of CNN’s overall on-air style.

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The new look also has some odd spacing issues, including how the show logo is squeezed into the left side of tease banners used at the top of the show.

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Meanwhile, the both the circular and glassy motif is also used from a different perspective in many of the animated wipes and transitions.

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There are versions that use animated circles centered around the logo in the lower left of the screen, with another variation featuring a stack of banded glass and solid segments fanning by the viewport.

In addition to the updated graphics, the show has also moved to a new area of the studio.

The old setup for ‘CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt’ in a different part of the network’s Washington, D.C., studio.

It remains in the network’s Washington, D.C., bureau, but switched to an oval anchor desk from the blocky one it previously used. CNN’s Studio A/B in Washington is essentially one large space but features several distinct venues that serve as home bases for various programming that originates from it.

In addition to the desk Hunt sits at, it also appears the uniquely shaped interview anchor desk originally created for CNN+ is being purposefully parked behind anchor Kasie Hunt.

New video wall graphics that match the graphics package have also been created. The D.C. skyline continues to be the dominant element, but with vertical segments that morph the city view accented with colored blocks.

There is also a large simulated yellow wall panel added to the look where some of the studio’s real columns interrupt the video wall installation. This also happens to line up with where Hunt is positioned in cross-shots with in-studio guests.

Also included in select parts of the look is a repeating logo band designed to resemble frosted glass, though this notably does not appear in Hunt’s one shot, with that spare anchor desk occupying that part of the frame. 

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Overall, Hunt’s new one shot has more depth and hard scenic, though it’s sometimes a bit hard to tell what exactly is behind her. 

It also makes the video wall feel softer and less like Hunt is just sitting in front of a giant span of LED. 

The current version of “CNN This Morning” replaced the “Early Start” timeslot of 5 to 6 a.m. Eastern while adding an hour to run until 7 a.m. Hunt was anchor of “Early Start” as well.

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CNN previously aired a show called “CNN This Morning” from 6 to 9 a.m., but that show was canceled in February 2024 and the name was recycled for Hunt’s show.

The Hunt version of “CNN This Morning” is more closely aligned with the “Early Start” format, however, so its lineage is largely separate from the 2022-2024 version of “This Morning.”