CNN dedicated a significant chunk of Tuesday’s primetime lineup to remembering Dolly Parton, and Kaitlan Collins was the one steering the ship. The anchor spent much of The Source bringing in musical heavyweights to discuss Parton’s fingerprints on the industry, and the conversations landed exactly where you’d expect. Guests spoke about her songwriting genius, her business instincts, and the rare trick she pulled off of being universally beloved in an industry that rarely allows for that.
Still, the segments with outside voices weren’t the moment that stuck with me. That came when Collins set the guest chair aside and talked about what Parton meant to her personally.
She told viewers about a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, with Parton’s music providing the soundtrack for the drive. It’s the kind of detail that sounds small on paper but hits differently when you hear an anchor say it live, on air, in the middle of a broadcast built around detachment. Collins explained that when the news of Parton’s death broke, her first instinct wasn’t to reach for a script. It was to call her sister. That’s the moment. Not the industry retrospective, not the guest bookings — the phone call.
The Tightrope Collins Walks
Kaitlan Collins lives in a strange professional space. She’s expected to hold the line as an objective journalist for most of her day as a White House correspondent, then somehow flip a switch and offer commentary when the format calls for it.
It’s a tightrope, and it’s not one that forgives many missteps. Lean too far into opinion and you risk your credibility. Stay too buttoned-up and you risk coming across as robotic, disconnected from the very human moments you’re supposed to be covering.
Tuesday’s Parton segment showed Collins finding her footing on that line better than she often does. Because she wasn’t performing grief or manufacturing a moment for effect. She was simply telling the truth about a drive, a favorite artist, and a sister she needed to call. It read as unscripted, even though it obviously wasn’t unplanned. That’s a hard needle to thread, and Collins threaded it.
Why She Should Do It More Often
My take, after watching that monologue, is that Collins ought to lean into this side of herself more regularly. I understand the hesitation. Journalists spend entire careers training themselves not to become the story, and opening that door even a crack can feel like a violation of the job description. But CNN has already put her in a hosting seat that requires some degree of personality and perspective. The network isn’t asking her to be a wire service. It’s asking her to be Kaitlan Collins, and viewers respond to that name because of the person behind it, not just the title.
Audiences gravitate toward personalities they feel like they know. That’s true in radio, it’s true in podcasting, and it’s just as true in cable news. Viewers don’t build loyalty to a rundown of talking points. They build it to the person delivering those points, especially when that person occasionally lets them see something real. Collins doesn’t need to turn every broadcast into a personal essay. She just needs to keep that door cracked open a little more often than she has been.
Tuesday’s tribute worked because it felt honest, not staged. Consequently, it’s the kind of moment that reminds viewers why they tuned in beyond the headlines. If Collins can find more chances to let that side through — without abandoning the objectivity that got her the chair in the first place — she’ll only strengthen the connection she’s already building with her audience. That’s not a small thing in an industry where attention is the whole game.
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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.