Kasie Hunt has settled in properly within the 4 p.m. ET slot on CNN. Since March, her present, The Enviornment, has lined main tales in actual time, main the published to complete as one in all CNN’s most-watched packages.
The present’s format has blended properly with the community’s late afternoon and night choices. This cohesion has led it to develop into a big participant within the political house, with high politicians making appearances: “I prefer to assume that that’s why folks wish to come on and discuss to me, as a result of I’m a reporter’s anchor,” Hunt lately advised TVNewser.
Nicely conscious that the TV panorama can change in a flash, Hunt is maximizing each alternative she will get. Following up on TVNewser’s preliminary interview earlier than the present launched in March, we lately caught up with Hunt to see how issues have been going for her, up to now, inside The Enviornment.
TVNewser: 5 months in, how’s it getting in The Enviornment?
Hunt: Actually, I’m having a good time. I really feel just like the longer we’ve been doing it, the extra the staff has been discovering its groove each behind the scenes and on air. We’ve made numerous progress [and are] beginning to really feel like we’ve got a groove going, and the viewers can come to the desk figuring out slightly bit extra of what to anticipate. The toughest factor for me was determining easy methods to be sure that my power was peaking at 4:00 within the afternoon as an alternative of six within the morning. My caffeine schedule is significantly totally different now than it was after I first began. However general, it’s nice.
What’s so totally different about working within the morning versus working within the night?
The largest distinction is that there’s a lot information that’s nonetheless breaking at 4 within the afternoon, and that’s a really totally different actuality than 6 a.m., when the world remains to be waking up. There are positively days after we do a present that we’ve deliberate and written and thought by way of, as a result of there wasn’t some large breaking story that modified the whole lot on the final minute. A good portion of our present remains to be breaking information or reacting to breaking information, and one of many nice issues concerning the format is that it’s properly geared up to deal with that sort of factor in a versatile method, particularly after we can mix it with CNN’s huge newsgathering assets.
Yesterday (07/30/25), for instance, we obtained a verdict within the protein shake poisoning trial proper earlier than we got here on the air, they usually learn the decision proper at 4. We have been in a position to do this with folks that we had pre-positioned, but it surely wasn’t the dialog we deliberate to have on the high of the present. However we pivoted shortly and did that.
The opposite factor that occurred was when Kamala Harris introduced that she wasn’t going to run for governor of California. That’s the story that’s very a lot in my wheelhouse as a long-time presidential marketing campaign reporter. When that occurred, the dialog instantly was like, “Okay, let’s lead the present with this. What parts are we going to drag? What moments from the marketing campaign ought to we remind our viewers occurred and will inform how they need to perceive what this resolution means?” and so forth. That ended up being our second dialog.
That’s a very good instance of with the ability to use the sort of construction that we had already arrange. The folks we had deliberate to have these conversations with are additionally well-informed and versatile, capable of activate a dime. So, that’s the most important change.
What does it say about The Enviornment incomes the most-watched title for the community a few occasions in the previous few months?
I’m at all times thrilled to listen to that we’re doing properly. I’ve nothing with out my colleagues, with out the community that helps the present and provides me a house and a spot to do it. I’m actually glad that our viewers are responding to what we’re doing, and I hope that claims one thing optimistic about us. I don’t take it to imply something destructive about anyone else—4 p.m. has develop into a spot the place, because the cable panorama has modified, viewers’ habits are altering as properly. It’s nice to be in a time slot the place you realize individuals are reaching the tip of their workday, most likely the market has closed, however they’re nonetheless actually engaged on the planet. They haven’t shifted to going residence and are searching for leisure within the night. I’m blissful to be the place I’m and capable of benefit from that.
Why has the present resonated so shortly with CNN’s viewers?
You by no means know with these sorts of issues. I switched networks, which is at all times a threat for anybody, as you’re assembly a brand new viewers. I’m actually grateful to Mark Thompson and the management at CNN for letting me do the present that I knew was going to be one of the best present from me. This has been one thing I’ve been engaged on, easy methods to discover my voice, my format, my place of being essentially the most snug. It began with my first present (on MSNBC), which was Kasie DC, and numerous the weather that you simply see on The Enviornment are issues that I used to be making an attempt out again then—when it comes to having panels, making an attempt to do large interviews, leaning into the strengths that I’ve as a congressional reporter and a political reporter, and taking the expertise that I’ve had over a few years.
I’ve had a number of totally different iterations at CNN. I came visiting for CNN+, after which I had a distinct position after that modified. I did the early morning present at 5, and then we expanded. These have been all conditions the place both I used to be coming right into a format that another person had executed initially, or there was a distinct imaginative and prescient. With The Enviornment, they’ve let me do my present, and that’s one thing that I don’t take with no consideration. The one method I’m going to succeed is by being the individual that I truly am and doing the issues that I’m good at. The viewers is both going to love that or they’re not. However I can’t be totally different than who I’m. The viewers will see proper by way of that. I admire that they let me placed on the air one thing that I got here to them and mentioned, “Hey, that is what I believe I can deliver to the desk,” they usually went for it, which was nice.
What speaks to The Enviornment’s capability to herald big-time politicians to the present, as seen with former Governor Andrew Cuomo?
I hope that the rationale why somebody who’s in “The Enviornment,” which is what we named the present for, desires to come back on and discuss to me is as a result of they perceive that I’ve put within the work as a reporter all through my profession to have the ability to deliver to the viewers, but in addition deliver to the newsmakers, a respect and understanding of what they’re doing—what they’re making an attempt to do and what they hope to do, a comparatively subtle understanding of what dwelling on this world appears to be like like, what it means to be an American politician, and an understanding of the pressures that they face and the best way that they make selections. I’d prefer to assume that generally I ask robust questions that may not truly sound that robust after I say them, however hopefully, a complicated viewer or participant would perceive.
