CNN Announces Show Names for New Lineup…Viewing Public Perplexed…

TVNewser noted CNN has announced show names for its new morning programming. The 7am show will be called “Starting Point” and the 5am show will be called “Early Start”…

I know it’s tough throwing together two new programs relatively quickly but could CNN at least come up with a naming convention that at least makes sense? How can you possibly have a show called “Starting Point” come after another show? The whole point of a “Starting Point” is that there is no before. It’s the beginning.

The only thing that could possibly be worse than having a show called “Starting Point” that comes after another show is having a show that’s called “Early Start” before a show called “Starting Point”. Doing so implies that you can skip “Starting Point” precisely because “Early Start” does get the jump on what comes next.

Why do programmers have to overthink these things so? You can name a show without making it confusing (“Fareed Zakaria GPS”) or silly (“John King, USA”). Not that CNN is the only one to do this…all the networks think too hard over these things (“The Pulse” and “Rock Center”, anyone?). It’s not rocket science. Stop making it look like it needs to be. “The Situation Room” was an elegant solution that perfectly described the show’s format..at least until CNN streamlined the format which made the name not quite as applicable as it was in the beginning. So I know the networks can avoid the silly and nonsensical show names if they try to. They just don’t try hard enough often enough.