Kasie Hunt Is Ready to Enter The Arena

Kasie Hunt landed at CNN in August 2021 as the first official anchor hire for the CNN+ streaming service. She was brought on because of her deep experience covering presidential campaigns, Congress, and the Washington, D.C. establishment.

Her time at CNN+ didn’t last long, though, as the streamer was shut down a month into its existence by the network’s new owner, Warner Bros. Discovery. Since then, Hunt had been filling in on CNN’s Washington-based shows and appearing as an analyst during election programming.

The CNN anchor and chief national affairs analyst also underwent a four-hour surgery to remove a benign brain tumor in 2021.

Before joining CNN, Hunt served as NBC News’ Capitol Hill correspondent and host of MSNBC’s weekday 5 a.m. hour Way Too Early. She also moved to mornings on CNN in 2023 and added additional responsibilities like anchoring the short-lived political show, State of the Race, on CNN International. 

Nearly 18 months later, Hunt is on the move again to the more favorable time slot of 4 p.m. ET. Starting today, she’ll anchor The Arena with Kasie Hunt, in the network’s latest programming revamp.

Ahead of the show’s premiere, Hunt spoke with TVNewser about her plans for the show and why The Arena will be the program that helps “people understand why things are happening—and what is going to happen next.” 

What is The Arena with Casey Hunt about? 

This is a show where the conversation that we are having in Washington—but also across the country— about politics and culture will play out. We’re planning for this to be a panel-driven show that also hopefully welcomes newsmakers on set where we can make news in the arena. Ultimately, [the show will] be a place where we are reflecting and pushing forward what is happening in Washington, in the country, in our politics, and in our culture.

We don’t just want to be a political show—although, of course, considering the new administration and the news, there’s obviously going to be a ton of politics. We want to be a place where people start to feel like they need to tune in to hear what our panel has to say, and to feel like they really are on top of where the narrative is going. 

What will make The Arena different from CNN’s other programs in terms of news and political coverage?

First of all, I think my colleagues put on great shows. Dana Bash, at noon has all reporters on her panels. Abby Phillip in the evening is very opinion-driven. We plan to have both. We plan to have reporters, big picture voices, and then also strategists from both sides of the aisle. My interest is in talking to people who are actually out there doing the work, who are in the arena, right?

They are reporting the news. They are driving the conversation. They are trying to win elections for their clients. They are seeing the data that’s coming in from the country. They are people who I would call on the phone as sources and say: “Hey, explain to me why this politician is acting the way they are?”

That’s the kind of conversation I want to drive. I want to be less about the back and forth in terms of fighting over who’s right or wrong, and more about helping people understand why things are happening and what is going to happen next. That’s the kind of the group of people I want to put together, and I think it’s a little unique compared to what else we have on the air. 

You’ve had early wake-up calls on some of your previous shows. How does it feel to be moving away from that time slot? 

My head is so much clearer now that I’m getting up at 6 a.m. instead of 3 a.m.! It’s a significant adjustment. I have loved my time doing morning television; I grew up as a morning TV viewer, and am always going to be a morning TV viewer.

But I’m excited about the chance to be at a time where we are able to absorb everything that happens across the day and reflect it at 4 p.m. I’m definitely excited about getting more sleep, and I’ll be able to take my kids to school, which will be really fun.

What made anchoring an early morning show unique and challenging? 

It’s different from other times during the day just because you have to make sure that you’re figuring out a way to push forward into the day. There’s not usually a ton that’s happened overnight, so you need to make sure that you’re really making it fresh for the audience. It can be grueling in its way. The hours are tough in that regard, and you have to build your life around making sure you’re sharp at that hour of the day.

It takes a lot of discipline, especially, when you are starting at 5 a.m. That’s very early! The biggest challenges are trying to make sure that you’re at the top of your game from a broadcasting perspective and from a sharpness perspective. 

When you signed off from CNN This Morning, I noticed that you gave a shout-out to CNN’s different production hubs in New York, Atlanta, and D.C. Can you explain how that decentralized production system works and how it benefits news coverage?

Obviously, CNN has a deep history in Atlanta and we’re moving more things back there. D.C. is also a really central place. It all works together. With all the shows that I’ve hosted, my teams have not been in the same physical location as me until now. My team for The Arena is going to be in Washington, but my team for CNN This Morning was based in Atlanta. It really is a question of getting everybody on the same page.

A lot of the tools that we developed during the pandemic, for example, make working this way very easy. Having a presence in Atlanta helps us offer a lens that is not quite as coastal or New York-centric, which is great for the news coverage.

What I was trying to say with that shout-out is that television is a team sport. That’s my favorite part about it. There are so many people that do top of the line work in whatever their field is to get us on the air and have us be the best that we can be. It means a lot to me. In the case of CNN This Morning, it relocated from New York to Atlanta and that required my EP Bruce Williams to move his family down to Atlanta to keep working with me. I was really grateful to him for doing that.

As a D.C.-based show closely following what the Trump administration is doing, what do you think about the recent news about the White House restricting press pool access? 

I’m not sure CNN has put out a formal statement on that, so I don’t want to get ahead of that in any way. I used to work at the Associated Press, so I have been in the White House press pool and you cannot overstate how important it is, especially in times of a national crisis like September 11th.

That someone who is a highly trained journalist who explicitly goes in with the goal of providing unbiased actual accounting of what has happened with the most powerful person in America is something that every American deserves, regardless of who they vote for. And ensuring that it is possible to have someone like that with the president at all times is something that every single American deserves. There’s a reason why the news organizations who have been included in the pool have been there for so long, and that previous Republicans and Democratic presidents alike have respected and responded to it. 

Anyone who supports the current president may have to consider what it may be like if a president that they don’t support politically is doing the same thing in terms of trying to control information. 

There have been several news industry shake-ups lately, from Lester Holt’s decision to step down from the Nightly News to several changes at MSNBC. What are your thoughts on the changing media environment and how is this show positioned to succeed amidst the upheaval? 

Upheaval is nothing new. I came to CNN for streaming. I am not someone who is afraid of change or afraid to take risks. I have said a couple of times that I am a reporter first and the skills that make you a good reporter and a good communicator are things that translate no matter what the medium. I have written for wire services, magazines, and newspapers, I have been on broadcast TV, I have been on cable TV, and briefly was on streaming.

One of the things I think about a lot in an information environment that is incredibly crowded is how do you cut through the noise and how can you help viewers? I spend so much time thinking about my audience and I’m in this business because I want to be able to help people understand what was going on here in Washington. And help them make their own decisions about how they were going to vote and how they were going to conduct their own lives—not because I told them what to do, but because I gave them information that would help them.

I do think in this cluttered environment, people are looking more and more to individuals. People want to know the people they’re getting their information and news from. We plan on not just being on cable; we hope The Arena will be on social media and online in innovative ways. The connection that I’m hoping to make with the audience is one that can cut through all this noise and make The Arena stand out.

Fox News recently launched a new show at 4 p.m. ET with Will Cain, and you two will be going head-to-head. How will you approach that time slot, especially seeing opinion programming creeping more into the dayside aspect of TV? 

Well, I’m a reporter first and you can look at my background and understand that’s where I come from. I really do believe that there is a place for real reporting on cable. I also don’t spend a lot of time comparing myself to my competitors. I think that the best way for me to succeed is to be authentic to myself, because I think viewers can see right through you if you’re not.

So what you’re going to get at 4 p.m. on CNN is the show that I do and you will see me as a reporter and analyst. I’m not an opinion host and I don’t have any intention of being an opinion host. Obviously we’re all competitive, and everyone is quite well aware of the trends in cable news and how they’re changing. The only thing I can do is just go on air every day and put on the best show I possibly can. 

What’s one thing we should look forward to when watching the premiere episode of The Arena?

I am not sure I can quite reveal a lot on that yet, but I am excited about the guests that we have lined up, both for our first day and hopefully our first week as well. I’m also really excited to show everybody how it’s going to look, because I think that the team that has worked on our graphics and music and all that have done a really great job. I can’t wait for everybody to see it.