CNN has made some lineup shuffles in recent months, including moving The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to 10 AM ET and adding Pamela Brown to the program.
Truth be told, I haven’t tuned into the program since the timeslot change and the addition of Brown, so I thought now would be the perfect time to scope out the show and see how Blitzer is handling having a person added to what was previously a solo show. I’ve continually said that shows deserve some time to find their footing — which I why I didn’t especially love another CNN show, The Arena with Kacie Hunt, when it debuted — before it should be judged.
With that in mind, I watched the Tuesday episode of the show helmed by Blitzer and Brown to get a feel for how things are going since the January debut.
The program began — like several other cable news shows did — by focusing on the situation between the United States, El Salvador, the Donald Trump administration, the Supreme Court, and Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Quite the story when you have that many moving parts.
In the first hour of the show, the program featured an interview with retired U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York Shira Scheindlin to talk about the situation.
Before asking the first question to Scheindlin, Blitzer played a clip of President Trump saying that if the Supreme Court ruled he would need to bring Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador after he was wrongly sent to the Central American country. However, the Supreme Court did rule that, in a 9-0 decision, no less, and…Trump did not follow through on his statement.
When the clip ended, Blitzer stated “President Trump is now saying something very, very different,” before bluntly asking “Is he now defying a court order?”
Short. Sweet. To the point. Unbiased. Not a leading question. One-sentence question with the expectation of a clear, definitive answer without space for wiggle room. Cable news perfection, from my eyes.
After the answer from the retired judge, Brown jumped in by reiterating the nuances of the decision by the Supreme Court, laying out what a possible defense from the Trump administration could be should they be challenged again on the topic.
She then questioned the situation by pointing out that the official stance has become that the Trump administration believes that the El Salvadorian president is the only person who has the power to release Abrego Garcia. But, the El Salvadorian president says he doesn’t have that ability. Which led Brown to question “Who determines this man’s fate?”
I think that’s a fantastic question. And it’s one that I would love to hear someone from the Trump administration answer. But Pamela Brown didn’t ask that of a Trump administration official. She asked it of a retired U.S. District judge. So, while it’s a phenomenal question, I think it’s better as a rhetorical question as a way to make a point about the absurdity of the situation more than it is an effective one in this setting.
Blitzer later posited that it appeared the Trump administration was using the vague language in the Supreme Court ruling as a workaround to avoid having to bring the Maryland resident back to the United States. Again, he asked a succinct question: “Do you think that argument will hold up?”
In this segment, I thought you saw both the journalistic props of Blitzer on display, and how powerful getting out of the way can be for a cable news host. When you’re bringing in a guest, the expectation is they’re the expert and should allowed to be the star. Blitzer did exactly that. And in her final question of the interview, Brown did as well, asking if a recent statement by President Trump about his belief that Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status for failing to comply with his efforts to root out DEI initiatives was constitutional or not.
Brown following the lead of Blitzer led me to another revelation: It feels clear that Blitzer is being used as an on-the-job mentor to Brown to be one of the next faces of what CNN hopes is a renaissance.
Pamela Brown is everything CNN should want in one of its next stars. She’s young, 41, interesting, a relatively polished and smooth operator of a fast-paced news show while simultaneously showing the ability to ask tough but firm questions that her viewers want the answers to.
From my seat, Brown is a female version of Anderson Cooper, except the 2025 version and not the 2001 version. She has an insanely interesting backstory, the daughter of former Kentucky Governor John Brown (D) — who helped Colonel Harlan Sanders launch a small restaurant called Kentucky Fried Chicken — and former sports broadcasting pioneer Phyllis George. Brown was also named after her aunt who died attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean in what was essentially an elaborate hot-air balloon. Origin stories don’t really get much wilder than that.
And on the flip side of the show, you have Wolf Blitzer, who is in my view the consummate cable news journalist. Cable news has — justifiably so, in my opinion — been viewed in a negative light due to its primetime programming pandering to the lowest common denominator on each side of the political aisle. But before roughly 6 PM ET, there is still some high-quality journalism being done. Not just on CNN, but on other outlets, too.
But Wolf Blitzer, to me, embodies what a cable news host should be. He’s unassuming and unafraid. He’ll ask the question that needs asking without fear of the pushback from the guest or interview subject. Furthermore, Wolf Blitzer doesn’t seem to put much emphasis on making sure his hair is finely coiffed and that his tie is positioned perfectly so. The longtime CNN host focuses on the questions, the content, the format, and getting answers from those being interviewed.
It has become a common practice for conservatives — whether it be on Fox News, Newsmax, or news/talk radio — to blister CNN at any opportunity. But rarely, and I mean rarely, is Wolf Blitzer the subject of that scorn. So, I think by being paired with Blitzer, CNN is signaling the heights it expects Pamela Brown to reach in the not-so-distant future.
And I couldn’t imagine a better person for Brown to emulate. I was impressed by what I saw from 10 AM to Noon ET on Tuesday. I’ll be a regular viewer going forward.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
