Kaitlan Collins’ nightly CNN show expected to make a big move this week

By day, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins wears out shoe leather at the White House, trying to get the latest details on any number of eyebrow-raising policies coming out of the Trump administration.

By night, the Alabama native holds forth from a shiny Washington studio, far from the fray.

CNN hopes to inject a little of the reporter’s daytime routine into her nighttime one.

Collins is expected to leave her studio perch and host her nightly program, “The Source,” from the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed outlet’s Washington, D.C., newsroom, a move that could take place as soon as Tuesday evening.

The hope is that the change in setting will give viewers a more kinetic presentation that reminds them of Collins’ unique place at the network — it is rare for someone assigned to a busy news beat, in this case that of chief White House correspondent, to also have responsibility for leading a primetime hour all week.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but it’s not a very chill place. There’s always something going on,” says Collins during a recent interview of the show’s new setting.

And that’s a better home for what the program provides.

“The Source” hinges on Collins’ ability to get newsmakers on the show for candid talk, and in recent days, those guests have included Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“We do much more of a reporting focus, so it’s a natural setting for a show that is focused pretty much around what we’re hearing, what’s happening at the White House or a lot of big moments are happening on the Hill late at night,” says Collins. “It will be less like a chic, glossy, bright set.”

CNN continues to burnish its reporting as it faces spirited partisan opinion fare from its two main rivals, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, that lures bigger audiences.

Collins has been assigned a pivotal role in that ongoing skirmish. At 33 years old, she is one of the youngest occupants of the network’s top White House role as well as the inhabitants of its 9 p.m. hour, a slot that has previously been occupied by Larry King, Piers Morgan and Chris Cuomo.

After breaking out with aggressive coverage of Donald Trump’s first term in office, she has increasingly been chosen to shoulder some of CNN’s bigger assignments, including an ill-fated morning show and a much-scrutinized town hall with then-candidate Donald Trump.

The changes to Collins’ show aren’t the most surprising the network has ever tested — does anyone recall the quiz shows backed by previous CNN chief Jeff Zucker? — but they show an effort to shake off the network’s image as a staid purveyor of the headlines and engage more viewers in an era when CNN’s ability to do so is under great scrutiny.

CNN’s overall primetime viewership fell 6% during the first quarter, and was off 1% among the audience advertisers favor most, people between 25 and 54. Some of the audience numbers the network captures these days have been cause for alarm.

The network’s most-watched show among the demo audience, “News Night,” nabbed an average of just 141,000 viewers in that category during the first quarter. “The Source” typically ranks third in viewership against Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” and, most recently, against MSNBC’s new “The Briefing with Jen Psaki” — though it made audience gains in the first three months of the year.

And while more of the viewers CNN might like to watch are getting their news via streaming video, mobile devices and social platforms, the network hasn’t ceded the battle — even though executives have seemed in recent months to have their eye more closely on launching products aimed to capture digital audiences.

Under CEO Mark Thompson, CNN has experimented with other new concepts, including the argumentative panel program “News Night” and Saturday night’s “Have I Got News For You,” which mixes humor and games with the headlines.

It’s part of a bigger strategy. Much of CNN’s daytime schedule is devoted to “News Central,” a concept that turns the anchors into conductors who bring live video, statistics and breaking-news scenes into the mix.

These ideas are meant to give CNN viewers something extra in an era when many news executives acknowledge traditional presentations are losing their ability to captivate large crowds.

Collins’ dual role at the CNN “sets her apart and plays to her many strengths — tenacity, insight, dry humor and amazing grace under pressure,” says Thompson, via an emailed statement.

The new format of “The Source,” he adds “is built around Kaitlan’s unique role not just as an outstanding anchor but the hard-working reporter who’s determined to stay close to the action.”

Such maneuvers aren’t just aimed at keeping traditional audiences interested.

These are all nods to the demands of a younger generation that is accustomed to seeing presentations that are decidedly less polished and don’t always hinge on an anchor behind a desk. Fox News has put opinion host Will Cain behind a large microphone, for example, in a late-afternoon hour that emulates the look of a video podcast.

Collins says she is mindful of meeting that audience on its own ground.

“We share so much of our stuff on social media, with Instagram, TikTok obviously X as well,” she says. “I was in the Zelensky Oval Office meeting, and it blew up with Trump. We came out, we recorded a video, and we posted it. And it got, like, bonkers. I do think there is a value. So many people are getting their news online these days and from social media.”

Her role is a demanding one, but Collins seems too busy to really entertain the question of whether she’s too busy.

During the day, she might try to flag down lawmakers or White House officials who turn up at the White House and has had to muscle through moments when late-breaking news keeps her on Pennsylvania Avenue even as airtime draws close.

One White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went until 7:45 p.m. in the evening, she recounted, “and then I’m racing to the bureau to get back in time.”

Her current job “is very high intensity and at a high pace, but you make it fun when you love the news.” CNN’s viewers will get to vote on whether her efforts give “The Source” a new jolt.