Rick Sanchez gets expanded show on CNN; 'The Situation Room' loses an hour [Updated]

CNN is shaking up its afternoon lineup in the new year. Beginning Jan. 18, “The Situation Room” will start an hour later to make room for a new show dubbed “Rick’s List,” anchored by Rick Sanchez, that will air from noon to 2 p.m. PST. It will be followed by a two-hour “The Situation Room,” whose anchor, Wolf Blitzer, had until now been handling three live hours a day.

CNN executives declined to speak publicly about the move, but a spokeswoman that the change was made to bring more uniformity to the afternoon lineup. The shake-up also lessens the focus on political news, which is expected to be one of the main topics covered in the 4 p.m. PST hour when John King begins anchoring that time slot early next year. [Updated at 12:06 p.m.: Blitzer will continue to cover political news in "The Situation Room."]

[Updated at 12:24 p.m: Sanchez will also cover the top political stories of the day during his program, while the shows anchored by Blitzer and King will be based in Washington and have a strong political focus.]

“Rick’s List” is expected to incorporate Twitter, a tool Sanchez frequently uses. This morning, he tweeted that the show “will be full of newsmakers and thinkers we- and u- think are relevant to CNN. My access = your access.”

Blitzer, in turn, tweeted that he was fine about the change. “Our excellent team can focus on 2 solid hrs,” he wrote. “Less becomes more.”

In the short term, Blitzer will continue to anchor for three hours a day, as he’ll be substituting in the 4 p.m. PST time slot until King begins his new show. King replaces Lou Dobbs, who abruptly resigned from the network last month. There is still no word yet about who will take over for King on his Sunday show “State of the Union.”

-- Matea Gold

Comments

[mrrational]

Seriously CNN? Not Sanchez. You can do much better than that... and to be perfectly honest I think your ratings are doing so poorly because there is too much feedback from viewers. I want to watch the news not someone reading twitter feeds from a bunch of morons.

[Janey]

yay!

[Janey]

oh yeah, love RICK SANCHEZ but i agree with above comment, don't read so many e-mail's and twitters. you can find one that says anything (and we all know that), so what's the point?

[Norman Rogers]

Huge mistake.

Sanchez really isn't even a broadcaster. He's a personality. He's not there to present the news. He's there to present Rick Sanchez as himself. He's there to be the Rick Sanchez that Rick Sanchez thinks you need to watch.

[brew50]

Is it just me!?!?! Am I the only one who thinks this guy is an idiot...and hard to watch!?!?!

[emm305]

Sanchez is a loon AND an idiot.

All the emails from viewers and pictures of someone doing something is front of a computer screen is insane. How can you NOT figure out why ratings are rotten? That, and ALL these men, plus a few more, have high pitched, screeching, screaming voices!!!
I flip right through, looking for news, which is rarely on CNN anymore.

[Clarabell Folks]

There is no one better on CNN than Rick Sanchez I am 82 years old and I have followed Rick since the very beginning. I like his attitude about everything and he deserves more than he has been getting. Hooray for Rick.
Go get 'em, Rick. Clara

[Jenni]

Rich Sanchez has the younger viewers watching because he is not a stuffy or boring as the traditional news anchors on cable news. The only show I really bother to watch on CNN is Rick' s because he covers interesting, relevant topics and actually likes to debate people. Wolf is so dull.

[Brian]

OMG, he is such an arrogant self absorbed idiot. I don't understand what CNN is doing. They seem to be watching other channels during his show. I guarantee that at least one time per show he says something that makes no sense. I do not like name calling for the sake of name calling, but he is a total moron. They can do so much better than this guy.

[Nancy DesJardins]

Twitter, Facebook, etc....who cares? Those are ways of keeping up on each other's day. Tired of all the email and twitter. Opinion polls are more consise if you need that input. I am a long-time, ardent, loyal CNN fan., (you are my homepage.) Keep "tweeting" etc. and the other networks will continue to kill you in the ratings!

[Robert]

NO, Brew 50 you are not an idiot! I turn the channel when he is on....I cannot put my finger on it, but he just seems so smarmy and kind of cocky! Just don't know what CNN is doing...I think they do a better balance act than Fox or MSNBC, but he is impossible to view!

[Jupp Baron Kerckerinck zur Borg]

I just watched Mr. Sanchez commenting on sharks swimming along the coast in Florida. "Those are sharks, very dangerous sharks" he said. He also said "I don't know what kind of sharks they are". If you don't know what kind of sharks they are how can you say that they are very dangerous. That is bad reporting Mr. Sanchez. You don't seem to know how important sharks are and how they get slaughtered by the millions. Making them look like dangerous animals without knowing what kind they are is irresponsible reporting. I can only hope that you educate yourself in the future before you make such statements.

[Ted C.]

Rick's comments and approval of Michael Vick as 1/4 back of the Eagles was nothing less than pathetic. A Leopard does not change it's spots. This guy [Vick} is of very poor character and should not be allowed to ever again participate in football. His time in jail is not going to change his basic makeup. Pro-Football has an overabundance of "poor character" athletes now more than ever, and it does not need the addition of Vick. Children look up to these players, if not idolize them, and the sooner the Lords of Football clean up the existing problems with the "too many" low class element, the better off football and the public will be.