| The Lead with Jake Tapper | |
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| Genre | News broadcast |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Production locations | CNN Studio Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Running time |
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| Original release | |
| Network | |
| Release | March 18, 2013 (2013-03-18) – present |
The Lead with Jake Tapper is an Americannews broadcast hosted by news anchorJake Tapper. The show has aired onCNN since March 18, 2013 in the network's pre- primetime timeslot.
The show currently airs weekdays live from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm ET, and the 5:00 pm to 5:30 pm segment is also aired onCNN International.
The show contains a "lead" for different subjects. They are theNational,Political,Money,Buried,Sports,World,Pop,Faith,Earth Matters,Tech, andHealth leads.
In December 2012, CNN hired Jake Tapper, then-seniorWhite House correspondent forABC News, as the network's chiefWashington, D.C. correspondent and the anchor of an afternoon program, in an arraignment partially orchestrated by businessmanJeff Zucker, who became the president of CNN Worldwide in 2013.[1] Tapper previously served as a host ofTake Five, a political talk show that began airing in March 2001, ending its production shortly before theSeptember 11 attacks.[2] According to spokeswoman Jennifer Scoggins, Tapper's program would air for sixty minutes inThe Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer's timeslot.[3] The move occurred as CNN's ratings in 2012 were behindFox News andMSNBC;[4] In January 2013,LinkedIn job openings began appearing forTapper.[5] CNN announcedThe Lead with Jake Tapper in February 2013 withToday producer Federico Quadrani as the show's executive producer, forcingThe Situation Room to start an hour later.[6]
The Lead with Jake Tapper debuted on March 18, 2013.[7] In 2013, the show was given a week of primetime re-run at 10 pmET. That week, theBoston marathon terror attack caused this rebroadcast to be axed in favor of a live edition ofAnderson Cooper 360°.
Following Piers Morgan's departure from CNN in March 2014, CNN President Jeff Zucker had various anchors fill the 9 pm ET slot as a test run. Among them wasThe Lead airing at 9 pm ET for the weeks of April 7 and April 14.
The Lead with Jake Tapper was also broadcast via tape-delay onCNN Philippines every Tuesday-Saturday for one hour at 11:00 am, local time from February 15 to July 23, 2016. From March 16 until September 5, 2015, the show aired at 4:00 pm.The Lead moved its morning telecast to 9:00 am but was truncated to 30 minutes until late January 2016 when it was moved to 8:30 for at least a month.
Before August 2016,The Lead with Jake Tapper was axed on CNN Philippines as part of program restructuring.
On September 10, 2018, the program started to be simulcast onCNN International.[8]
In October 2020, the show aired for two hours from 3pm to 5pmET.Brooke Baldwin'sCNN Newsroom hour was removed for the month. The show went back to its usual air time in November after Baldwin returned.
In January 2021, CNN announced that the show would expand to two hours starting in April, taking over the former first hour ofThe Situation Room.[9]
On January 23, 2025, it was announced that the show would move from its original 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm slot to 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm, as part of a major shakeup to the network's lineup.Kasie Hunt is expected to take over the 4:00 pm timeslot with a new show, called The Arena. The move is expected to take place in March 2025.[10][11]
| Preceded by | CNN Weekday lineup 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm | Succeeded by |
