News of a missing plane has arrived and CNN couldn’t care any less about anything else happening in the world.
That was apparent Sunday as the Turner network’s two predominant Sunday morning shows, “State of the Union” and “Reliable Sources,” each cancelled their entire lineups to talk about the missing AirAsia plane. (MISSING: AirAsia Flight From Indonesia To Singapore Loses Contact, Whereabouts Unknown)
“State of the Union,” CNN’s Sunday affairs show, was slated to feature the likes of Texas Governor Rick Perry, Sen. Bob Menendez and Sen. Lindsey Graham. The show was being guest-hosted this week by CNN’s congressional correspondent Dana Bash after former host Candy Crowley’s tenure at the network ended after last week’s program.
Such is the news biz. our great lineup: @GovernorPerry @GrahamBlog @SenatorMenendez replaced by breaking news @CNNsotu 9a Et #missingplane
— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) December 28, 2014
CNN’s other program Sunday morning, “Reliable Sources,” followed suit, discarding it’s entire scheduled program and covered the missing plane for the entire 11 a.m. hour. Host Brian Stelter was initially supposed to have an exclusive interview with White House senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer.
This morning I'm reminded of one of Shep Smith's favorite lines: "…Unless breaking news changes everything"
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 28, 2014
One hour til a special edition of @CNNReliable — live coverage of #QZ8501 with @JonOstrower, @David_Soucie, @MarySchiavo, @RichardQuest
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 28, 2014
Luckily for the two programs, they actually aired Sunday morning. The same cannot be said for CNN’s two other morning shows “Inside Politics” with John King and “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” which (respectively) air at 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m., as coverage of the plane swallowed up the two programs whole.
After news broke that the flight went off the grid late Saturday night, CNN quickly sprang into motion, breaking from CNN’s regularly scheduled programming of “The Hunt With John Walsh” and into a simulcast of CNN International, which covered the missing plane extensively.
Meanwhile, Fox News continued to show a repeat of “Huckabee,” which airs weekends at 8 p.m., while MSNBC aired “Lockup,” a show examining prison facilities throughout the U.S.