CNN International’s rejigged European prime time schedule kicked off on Monday with the return of Christiane Amanpour fronting her namesake program and the debut of Isha Sesay’s CNN NewsCenter.

Hamid Karzai was Amanpour’s first guest. The Afghan President was also the first guest when Amanpour. first launched in 2009. Amanpour also managed to secure the first interview with new World Bank president Dr. Jim Yong Kim. Other guests appearing on the program this week include U.S. Ambassador to the U.N, Susan Rice and Israel’s Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak.

Amanpour. airs live weekdays at 1900 GMT with several replays throughout the following day. A scoped aircheck of the first program is in the video below.




CNN NewsCenter is a new 30 minute daily program that is described by CNN as “the definitive destination for an intelligent, complete global picture of the day's news.”

Hosted by Isha Sesay from the CNN Domestic newsroom, the program airs live at 1930 GMT weekdays. Early reaction on our forum was mixed, but leaning towards positive on first viewing:

ginnyfan: "Like everything so far, opening is like a white lighter version of WR/W1 style, much better. Also great they broadcast from newsroom."

Axl0706: "Don't like the tacky music but everything else seems to be good! The white/black/red-color combination they are using is very pleasant. If they keep focussing on hard news every day, I think it will be a success."

Newser: "… it's IDesk meeting CNN Newsroom which could be called 'CNN Isha is in the Center' and would be a great fit for an international version of HLN if it existed."

excel99: " ... It's better than PMT in the slot, and it's better than Backstory full of filler. It is also only day 1. Things could change over time. But in terms of substance I was disappointed - that slot needs something like the 'original W1'. The news, in full, not with loads of analysis or features, but not just headlines. Short concise reports on all the issues of the day. If CNNi have forgotten, go and watch a 30 minute AJE bulletin ..."

Gman: "Like the show, like the concept but not the gimmicks. Is the whole walking into the newsroom thing at the beginning going to be used every episode or was it just for the premiere? Graphics and music so much better than WR (in my humble opinion...). I've always liked Isha as a host of pure news programs - it's much more her style ..."

A scoped aircheck of the debut edition is in the video below.