CNN Celebrates Larry King’s 50th Anniversary in Broadcasting

Multi-platform Programming Kicks off ‘King-Sized’ Anniversary Week of April 16-22

Award-winning broadcaster Larry King marks his 50th anniversary in broadcasting with a weeklong celebration on Larry King Live and on CNN across all of its platforms, including on air, online and on radio. King kicks off the anniversary week with Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Bill Clinton, Bill Maher and a two-hour special presentation, CNN Presents: Larry King – 50 Years of Pop Culture.

King’s career began in 1957 when he worked at a small radio station in Miami Beach, Fla., performing odd jobs. When an announcer suddenly quit, he was given his big break and offered a position as a disc jockey. Fifty years and 40,000 interviews later, King altered the face of broadcasting with his everyman touch. He has interviewed everyone from presidents and kings, celebrities and newsmakers and ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. When King made the transition from his successful national radio talk show to cable, he helped pioneer the future of cable news programming and CNN.

As part of the weeklong anniversary celebration, King will host a few of his favorite guests during the week of April 16-22 on Larry King Live.

Monday, April 16 – Oprah Winfrey joins King for an in-depth discussion on longevity in the media and the call to give back, 9-10p.m. (ET);

Tuesday, April 17 – Katie Couric turns the microphone on King and interviews him on his own set, 9-10p.m. (ET);

Wednesday, April 18 – CNN Presents premieres a two-hour special Larry King - 50 Years of Pop Culture. This documentary will focus on the last 50 years of pop culture as seen through King’s bespectacled eyes, including his early days in Miami covering local celebrities and hurricanes to his national radio show that was broadcast from Washington, D.C., to his pioneering cable television move to CNN with a prime-time, worldwide show with audience calls, 9-11p.m. (ET);

Thursday, April 19 – Bill Clinton joins King for an exclusive and engaging interview, 9-10p.m. (ET);

Friday, April 20 – Bill Maher and more than 20 surprise all-star guests celebrate King on his set, 9-10p.m (ET);

Saturday, April 21 – Larry King – 50 Years of Pop Culture, 8-10p.m. (ET);

Sunday, April 22 – Larry King – 50 Years of Pop Culture, 8-10p.m. (ET).

Photographs and a full transcript of all interviews will be available each night and in advance when possible. All guests are subject to change.

In addition, King will appear on CNN programming and radio throughout the week discussing his career and his greatest interviews.

CNN will release Larry King Live: The Greatest Interviews, a three-disc DVD collection containing more than nine hours of programming. The collections will feature King’s most compelling interviews with movie and television stars, comedians, talk show hosts, presidents and newsmakers from CNN’s longest-running interview program. The collection will go on sale Tuesday, April 17.

CNN.com highlights King’s 50th anniversary with a special report located at www.CNN.com/LarryKing50. The report includes an interactive timeline reflecting King’s life and his most famous interviews, complete with video and audio clips; several galleries and features offering trivia and statistics about King; an audio quiz that invites users to listen to King ask some of his famous questions and then guess the guest who answers; and a behind-the-scenes look at King’s career as he talks about the evolution of broadcasting over the past 50 years and reveals his tips for a successful interview and the secret to a long career.

Larry King Live airs nightly from 9-10 p.m. (ET). For more information on upcoming shows or to locate past transcripts, visit http://www.CNN.com/larryking. Wendy Walker is the senior executive producer of Larry King Live. Through its global cable networks, CNN will broadcast the Larry King programming to more than 290 million households around the world.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; four Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; CNN Pipeline, CNN.com’s premium live video news service; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and partnerships for four television networks and two Web sites.