Viewers tuning to CNN on Saturday might have been surprised to find Wolf Blitzer and his Situation Room inhabiting its usual weekday timeslot. It was indeed Saturday and not the early 2000s when The Situation Room regularly ran six days a week. Instead, CNN brought several of its weekday personalities and shows — Brooke Baldwin, Wolf Blitzer, and Erin Burnett — to Saturday.
Saturday was an unusually newsworthy weekend day that the anchors were able to take advantage of. The day marked one year of the Trump Administration as the government had shutdown and protesters across the nation took to the streets for the second annual Women’s March.
CNN’s Saturday morning started normally with New Day Weekend and then Smerconish. However at 10 AM, Fredricka Whitfield took over coverage with CNN Newsroom but she was in Washington, D.C., instead of her usual Atlanta.
Brooke Baldwin, who is based in New York, was also down in Washington, D.C. for the day and she anchored her typical weekday hours, 2-4 PM. Jake Tapper, who counts Saturday as his one day off, was not on at 4 PM. Instead, Brianna Keilar was in for a rolling news hour of CNN Newsroom in D.C.
At 5 PM, Wolf Blitzer picked up coverage with The Situation Room. He anchored his typical hours of 5-7 PM and the show even boasted a similar panel as yesterday. At 7 PM, Erin Burnett took over with OutFront and that show ran two hours.
Anderson Cooper had the day off, however, and there was no Anderson Cooper 360. Instead, Don Lemon (who was live for several hours Friday night into Saturday as a result of the shutdown breaking news) anchored CNN Tonight from 9 PM until 10 PM. At that point, Jake Tapper’s Special Report, Trump’s First Year: Reign of Chaos, aired.
Whether CNN experienced a ratings bump on Saturday will remain unknown until Nielsen releases the ratings (typically on Tuesday). However, CNN clearly viewed the day as not only significant enough to bring in the weekday anchors, but also fly some to Washington, D.C.