Nexstar’s NewsNation to Become 24/7 Cable News Channel June 1
Three years after rebranding the channel formerly known as WGN America to NewsNation, the Nexstar-owned channel will officially be a 24/7 cable news outlet.
NewsNation says that with the addition of NewsNation Now with Adrienne Bankert on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the channel will officially be programming news 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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NewsNation had been programming reruns of the CBS series Blue Bloods during the 4-7 p.m. weekend hours. Bankert will now anchor the window.
“We are immensely proud to announce that NewsNation is now a 24/7 cable news network,” said Sean Compton, president of Nexstar’s networks division, in a statement. “This milestone marks the culmination of our efforts to continue expanding and growing the network since launching it in 2020. It reaffirms our commitment to delivering unbiased news coverage, a mission that resonates deeply with our viewers, fostering their trust in the brand, and strengthening their loyalty to NewsNation.”
Nexstar acquired WGN America when it bought the former Tribune stations in 2019. It originally launched NewsNation as a programming block in 2020, before rebranding the channel entirely in 2021. NewsNation currently has a primetime lineup of Chris Cuomo, Dan Abrams and Ashleigh Banfield, with broadcast and cable news veterans Elizabeth Vargas and Leland Vittert also anchoring key hours.
More recently it built out its weekend lineup in its move to become a 24/7 cable news channel, with the weekend editions of Morning in America with Hena Doba from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET, NewsNation Live from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET, NewsNation Now with Anna Kooiman from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET, and The Hill Sunday with Chris Stirewalt, which debuted earlier this year.
While NewsNation is still small compared to its cable news competitors, its ratings are up more than 200 percent since the 2021 rebrand.
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