Journalism is the fourth estate and is a watchman against corruption and injustices. Consequently, it leaves the journalists with no choice but to be equally diligent, skillful, and morally upright. One can argue that our present world, a technologically driven world characterized by instant access to information, “clickbait” culture, and citizen journalism, has significantly hindered the existence of “quality’ journalists. There are still people involved in this occupation, even though some of them still have a significant influence on modern media. CNN is among the most renowned and reliable news networks in the United States. Here is a list of 10 noteworthy CNN anchors all journalism students should know.

Most Famous CNN Anchors

The most recognized CNN anchors are Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Don Lemon, and others mentioned below.

Anderson Cooper (Popular CNN Anchors)

A US journalist, Anderson Cooper, has his own CNN nightly show, Anderson Cooper 360. It has been his show since 2003, when he was an ABC news correspondent in 1995 and then an anchor on CNN some years back. Besides his work at CNN, he is also a correspondent for CBS’s 60 Minutes. Cooper has won many awards for his work since 1993, when he scooped the prestigious Bronze Telly Award for his exclusive coverage of famine in Somalia. These are among the four Emmy Awards (he was nominated for five other instances), a Peabody Award, and a National Headliner Award.

In 2005, Cooper reported on the Sri Lanka tsunami destruction, the Cedar revolution in Beirut, Lebanon, and the death of Pope John Paul II, as well as coverage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles’s royal wedding. In August 2005, he was in Maradi, covering the Niger famine. While protecting the reaction following Hurricane Katrina for CNN, he challenged Sen. Mary Landrieu, Sen. Trent Lott, and Rev. Jesse Jackson on what they saw as the lack of a federal government response.

CNN anchors

In an interview with New York magazine, Cooper said, “He would prefer not to be emotional, and he would prefer not to get upset, but it’s tough not to when you’re surrounded by courageous people who are suffering and in need.” A Broadcasting & Cable magazine contributor wrote: “Hurricane Katrina gave birth to the so-called emo-journalism, catapulted CNN’s Anderson Cooper onto superstar status to be CNN’s Golden Boy and media industry darling.

BornJune 3, 1967
New York City, US
Alma materYale University (BA)
OccupationsBroadcast Journalist Political Commentator
Years Active1990-present
EmployersChannel One News (1990-1995)
ABC News (1995-2000)
CNN (2001-1995)
TelevisionAnderson Cooper 360°, Anderson Live, Anderson Cooper Full Circle, The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper

Wolf Blitzer (Popular CNN Anchors)

Wolf Blitzer, born on March 22nd, 1948, is a journalist, TV news host, and author who has been working for CNN as a reporter since 1990 and now serves as one of the primary anchors of the network. He has been hosting The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer since 2005 and the lead political anchor for CNN until 2021. CNN has picked Blitzer to act as a lead anchor for all US presidential elections since 2004. From August 8th, 2005, Blitzer has hosted the Situation Room, a 2-hour afternoon/early evening program on the channel.

Wolf anchored the 01:00 pm ET hour of CNN Newsroom in 2013; in 2014, the program was renamed Wolf. However, Wolf ended in 2018 and was followed the same year by CNN, hosted by Brianna Keilar. The channel announced that its programming would change starting in January 2021, reducing the duration of The Situation Room to one hour (6 o’clock to 7:00 pm EST) from May 26th as well as widening Jake Tapper on documentaries; Blitzer will still be hosting while “serving as a principal anchor for all major breaking news.” Meanwhile, Jim Acosta will act as the network’s “chief domestic correspondent.” He also hosted The Newscast with Wolf Blitzer on CNN+.

Top CNN Faces
BornMarch 22, 1948
Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity at Buffalo (BA)
Johns Hopkins University (MA)
OccupationJournalist
Years Active1972-present
EmployerCNN
TitleAnchor, The Situation Room
CNN Chief Anchor

Don Lemon (Among Popular CNN Anchors)

In 2006, he was a correspondent for CNN and later emerged as the face of the Don Lemon Tonight program, which aired from 2014 to 2022. In 2014, CNN started testing prime-time shows that Lemon hosted, such as The Eleventh Hour and The Don Lemon Show. After the absence of Malaysia Flight 370, Lemon began to air a nightly show that involved aviation professionals. After the cancellation of Piers Morgan Live, This Hour was replaced by CNN Tonight (a news program), which Lemon would later become the host of, as he was replaced by CNN Tonight with Don Lemon. At times, Lemon has reported on CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live from a city in the Central Time Zone alongside Brooke Baldwin.

In May 2021, the channel announced that Lemon and fellow CNN journalist Chris Cuomo would start a podcast named “The Handoff” about politics. On May 17th, CNN Tonight with Don Lemon was renamed Don Lemon Ton.

CNN announced that Lemon will be hosting the talk show for its upcoming streaming service CNN+ in February 2022, titled ‘The Don Lemon Show.’ The new monthly service saw two episodes in its first and only month of existence in April 2022. On September 15th, 2022, CNN announced that Lemon will co-chair a new morning show with Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow later this year. On October 12th, 2022, the network announced that the morning show would be called CNN This Morning. The show fired Lemon from the show in April 2023, terminating his years of stay.

Don Lemon Tonight program
BornMarch 1, 1966
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US
EducationBrooklyn College (BA)
OccupationJournalist
EmployerCNN (2006-2023)
Political PartyIndependent
AwardsRegional Emmy Award
Edward R. Murrow Award

Chris Cuomo (Popular CNN Anchors)

In February 2013, Cuomo left ABC and joined CNN, where they co-hosted the network’s morning show. On the February 8th, 2013, of Piers Morgan Tonight, he was the field anchor covering the February 2013 nor’easter. In March 2018, while co-anchoring CNN’s morning show – New Day, CNN announced that Cuomo would move to prime-time to host Cuomo Prime Time. Sister network HLN premiered a new documentary series, Inside With Chris Cuomo, in October 2017. This series of stories affects real people in real towns and cities across America.

CNN anchors

On July 26th, 2022, Cuomo, during an interview with Dan Abrams on NewsNation, announced he would host a new late prime-time program at the Nexstar Media Group-owned channel later in the year. Cuomo started a new series on October 3rd, 2022. Cuomo remarked during the premiere that he had “learned good and bad lessons” from his previous job at CNN, that his new show would not be typical like most others, and that, like the rest of NewsNation’s programming, this show would aim to be neutral and non- Finally, the right has erred in its silence for too long. Our election was not stolen, and Cuomo’s first month at NewsNation included interviews of such figures as West, who disagreed with his antisemitic comment. Cuomo’s Republican friends are aware that they are right.

BornAugust 9, 1970
New York City, US
EducationYale University (BA)
Fordham University (JD)
OccupationJournalist
EmployerNewsNation (2022-present)
CNN (2013-2021)
Known ForCuomo Prime Time
RelativesCuomo Family

Erin Burnett (Among Popular CNN Anchors)

Erin Burnett started her career in Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division, providing M&A support and corporate finance. During her stint as an investment banking analyst, Burnett gained the opportunity to write and book Moneyline with Stuart Varney, Willow Bay, and Lou Dobbs for CNN. She quit her job for a new post in CitiMedia, the digital media group within Citigroup.

Erin Burnett

She began working with CNN on October 3rd, 2011. She then started hosting her top-rated prime-time news show, OutFront with Erin Burnett, broadcast from CNN’s New York studios. However, after joining CNN, she aired an October 4th, 2011, segment titled “Seriously?” FAIR reported that she had lied about protesters and that her claims of violence were false.

Glenn Greenwald responded in an article at Salon that exposed bias in Burnett’s reporting and said that it is due to her experience working on Wall Street and her partner Citigroup. According to it, CNN responded to the criticism, saying, “We stand for Erin and OutFront and acknowledge the fact that there will be diverse opinions regarding any news story.” Burnett asserted that the use of military forces to remove protestors from Lafayette Square upon Trump’s proposal, as an implementation of the Insurrection Act, constituted invoking an act not exercised since 1807 to deploy US military troops on American soil.

BornJuly 2, 1976
Mardela Springs, Maryland, US
Alma materWilliams College (BA)
Occupation (s)News Anchor
Journalist
Years Active2003-present

John King (Among Popular CNN Anchors)

John King joined CNN in 1997 as its senior White House correspondent until 2005. In 2005, King became CNN’s chief national correspondent, a post he maintains. He hosted Sunday Morning from 2014 to 2021 and more often during the presidential elections’ news program, Inside Politics, which featured a rotating circle of media representatives providing their perspectives on political matters to King. He often fills in as host on the programs The Situation Room and Anderson Cooper 360° and anchors.

CNN anchors

Then, in January, just before the inauguration of the current US president, King hosted his new program called State of the Union after CNN’s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer one month earlier. Following the departure of Lou Dobbs from the network on November 12th, 2009, CNN revealed that King would succeed him in the early days of 2010. On January 31st, 2010, King stated that CNN’s senior political reporter, Candy Crowley, would succeed him and take over as anchor person for State of Unity. John King started airing his new evening show, John King, USA, on March 22nd, 2010. On May 2nd, 2011, it was John King, the CNN Anchor, who informed his audiences that Osama was finally dead. King had hosted a Republican presidential debate on January 19th, 2012, just before the South Carolina Primary.

From 2016 – 2023, King was the weekday host of CNN’s morning show, Inside Politics. Abby Phillip will take over for King on January 24th, 2021, on Inside Politics’ Sunday edition, which airs on January 11th, 2021. Abby Phillip’s Inside Politics Sunday is a new show. On April 4th, 2023, his colleague and ex-wife Dana Bash was announced to replace him as the sole anchor of Inside Politics in mid-June.

BornAugust 30, 1963
Boston, Massachusetts, US
EducationUniversity of Rhode Island (BA)

Jake Tapper (Among Popular CNN Anchors)

He started on CNN in January 2013, hosting his program The Lead with Jake Tapper. In 2013, The Lead with Jake Tapper received three National Headliner awards for its reporting. The category “Coverage of a major news event” received first place for The Boston Marathon bombing, second place for the Oklahoma tornadoes, and third place for the latter.

Jake Tapper

In June 2015, Jake Tapper took over as a host of CNN’s Sunday politics program, State of the Union with Jake Tapper. There, he is famous for taking on politicians regardless of their party affiliations, e.g., he challenged Senator Bernie Sanders to release his tax returns and questioned Jeb Bush why Hillary Clinton was responsible for Benghazi if his brother George W. Bush had nothing to do with the terrorist. In January 2021, before Biden’s inauguration, CNN announced that Tapper’s role would grow to include him as the network’s “lead anchor for all major Washington events,” including election nights. They also revealed that Dana Bash will be a co-host on State of the Union alongside Tapper rotational weeks.

BornMarch 12, 1969
New York City, New York, US
EducationDartmouth College (BA)
OccupationJournalist
EmployerCNN
OrganizationWhite House Correspondents’ Association
AwardsMerriman Smith Memorial Award
Emmy Award

Brooke Baldwin

Since 2008, Baldwin has joined CNN. Before 2014, Baldwin on-aired in Atlanta from CNN’s international headquarters. Since 2014, CNN has worked with her on the anchor desk in CNN newsrooms with Brooke Baldwin. Baldwin co-anchored special coverage of the final launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-135) from Kennedy Space Center on July 8th, 2011.

Baldwin’s documentary titled “To Catch a Serial Killer” won the Silver World Medal Award for the category of best investigative report at the 2012 New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards. She was nominated for an Emmy for her report on the New York protest of chokehold death after Eric Garner passed away in 2014. She covered the presidential inauguration of President Obama in January 2013 in Washington, DC. In 2015, Baldwin was nominated for the Peabody Award when she hosted a town hall on gun violence.

CNN anchors

It was Baldwin’s role in the 2015 Baltimore protest where she had a misquote that veterans were responsible for unrest—saying that the soldiers returning home and joining the police force “are coming back from war, they don’t know the communities, and they’ Erik Wemple of The Washington Post, “CNN’s Brooke Baldwin Shows Rest of Media How to Apologize.

Baldwin covered the incident by live reporting in June 2016 in Orlando, Florida, where he focused on the victims of the Orlando nightclub shootings. She appeared at President Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, 2017. Baldwin announced on February 16th, 2021, that she would depart CNN in mid-April.

BornJuly 12, 1979
Atlanta, Georgia, US
EducationUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA, BA)
OccupationNews Anchor
EmployerCNN (2009-2021)

Christiane Amanpour

Kristiane Amanpur is a British-Iranian journalist and television presenter. She serves as CNN’s chief international anchor and host of the nightly interview program Amanpour on CNN International and The Amanpour Hour on Saturday. She also presents Amanpour & Company on the PBS network. In 1983, CNN employed Amanpour in Atlanta, Georgia, as a junior desk assistant on the foreign desk. Her first significant coverage assignment was with the Iran–Iraq war early in her career. Subsequently, she was transferred to Eastern Europe in 1986 to cover the collapse of European communism. In 1989, she moved to Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, and covered the revolutionary developments in Eastern Europe. She became a New York Bureau correspondent for CNN by 1990.

After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, her coverage of the Persian Gulf War made her famous and established CNN as a leading news organization. Following this, she covered the Bosnian wars and other conflict areas. Amanpour was CNN’s chief international correspondent between 1992 and 2010. She hosted Amanpour, a daily CNN interview show from 2009 to 2010. Immediately after 9/11, she was the first foreign correspondent to interview British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, and the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf.

CNN anchors
BornJanuary 12, 1958
London, England
EducationUniversity of Rhode Island (BA)
OccupationsJournalists – Television Host
EmployerCNN
Notable CreditsAmanpour (CNN International)
Anchor (2009-2010, 2012-present)
Amanpour & Company (PBS)
Anchor (2018-present)

James Acosta

James Acosta, born in April 1971 in the USA, is a broadcast journalist, anchor, and CNN’s chief domestic correspondent. He was the chief White House correspondent for the Trump administration. During this period, the public noticed their conflicts with Acosta in the briefings. On January 11th, 2021, just before Trump left the White House, CNN announced he had been tapped as the Anchor and Chief Domestic Correspondent.

Acosta joined CNN in April 2007. The following year, Acosta covered the 2008 presidential campaign of Democratic candidates like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, usually filling up the weekend political show anchor of Ballot Bowl. In addition, he became a correspondent for CNN’s American Morning Program and covered the midterm elections in 2010.

Acosta became CNN’s national political correspondent in February 2012. The network had Acosta as their national political correspondent, who acted as their lead correspondent during Mitt Romney’s 2012 Republican presidential campaign. Acosta confronted President Obama on his administration’s approach toward destroying the terrorist organization ISIS at a nationally televised news conference in November 2015.

In March 2016, Acosta made a trip to Cuba to cover the first-ever visit by an American president to the island. In one of the rare news conferences held in Havana with Obama and the president of Cuba, Raúl Castro, Acosta challenged Castro on his country’s human rights record. He was upgraded as the White House chief correspondent on January 9th, 2018. In January 2021, CNN stated that Acosta moved to the Chief domestic correspondent and weekend anchor role. The announcement was tailored to suit the incoming Biden administration.

James Acosta
BornApril 17, 1971
Washington, D.C., US
NationalityAmerican
EducationAnnandale High School
OccupationNews Anchor
EmployerCNN
Famous ForChief Domestic Affairs
Correspondents & Anchor for CNN