ACN logo
Atlantis Cable News (ACN) is an American television network. It is owned by Atlantis World Media. ACN broadcasts 24 hour news programming in competition with similar services provided by Fox and MSNBC. Their flagship program is News Night with Will McAvoy at 20:00, followed by The Capitol Report from the Washington bureau at 21:00, and Right Now with Elliot Hirsch from 22:00.
The network's news division director was Charlie Skinner. Reese Lansing is the president of AWM with his mother Leona Lansing being its CEO. In the course of season 3, ownership of ACN was transferred to new media billionaire Lucas Pruit.
History[]
ACN saw a turbulent history during the series' run. At a point in time prior to the first episode, Leona Lansing bought the network - also in order to have an outlet for her views in the country's political debate. Its flagship news program was Newsnight with Will McAvoy, anchored by former prosecutor Will McAvoy who had been the network's legal correspondent at the time of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. With most of the network's top correspondents unable to come to New York City and Will being the only one on-site, McAvoy anchored coverage of the day's horrific events. It was here, where Charlie Skinner and him exchanged their first words - with Skinner encouraging him and McAvoy vowing to the audience that "I'll be here all night", whatever happened.
By 2010, McAvoy had become the star anchor of Newsnight and ACN. However, somewhere between 2001 and 2010, he lost his way and featured high-ratings stories about the weather and entertainment in his news segments. Sometime in April 2010, he participated in a panel on broadcast journalism at Northwestern University, during which a one of the students (Jennifer Johnson) asked a seemingly innocuous question: "What makes America the greatest country in the world?". McAvoy replied with a tirade, single-handedly refuting the premise behind the question and causing a media uproar. After a holiday, Newsnight was revamped under the new Executive Producer Mackenzie McHale and Senior Producer Jim Harper. The new team's first big story was the Deepwater Horizon disaster, with ACN becoming the first network reporting on the spill (rather than the rescue mission), outpacing its rivals in the process.
Starting with an on-air apology about the supposed dereliction of its journalistic mission, the new Newsnight with McAvoy pursued a stance based on thorough investigation, analysis and coverage of the facts, instead of previously accepted sensationalism. However, Newsnight 2.0 did run into bumps on the road: the segment featuring the immigration legislation proposed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer failed spectacularly, whilst the show began to become increasingly critical of the ascendant Tea Party movement prior to the 2010 congressional elections. The host's future was also called into question by a series of engineered scandals, which turned out to be the making of AWM's Chief Executive Officer, Leona Lansing.
Programming[]
- ACN Morning (morning program featuring Tony Hart and Maria Guerrero)
- The Daily Report - (daytime news)
- Hollywood Wrap-Up (featuring Shannon Bryer)
- Atlantis Hollywood (featuring Diane and Billy)
- Mid-Day Finance Report (featuring Sloan Sabbith)
- Market Wrap-Up (featuring Sloan Sabbith)
- News Night with Will McAvoy (8:00 pm) - broadcast from New York City.
- The Capitol Report with Terry Smith (9:00 pm) - broadcast from Washington, DC.
- Right Now with Elliot Hirsch (10:00 pm) - broadcast from New York City.
- (Program featuring Jane Barrow) (10:00 pm) - weekends