By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — After departing NPR, former Nashville-based, award-winning journalist Audie Cornish will be among the hosts featured on CNN’s new streaming service CNN Plus, which debuts March 29. She will be hosting a weekly program, a new podcast, and also is expected to appear on CNN covering national, political and breaking news.
“I am very excited to join CNN and the CNN Plus team. There are fresh stories to be told and new ways to tell them,” said Cornish, who was a co-host of NPR’s popular “All Things Considered,” in a prepared statement. “CNN has a dynamic system of reporters and storytelling channels. I am thrilled to be a part of it.”
Cornish is one of a parade of new hosts and correspondents joining the WarnerMedia-backed outlet. CNN has hired cooking writer Alison Roman; business professor Scott Galloway; congressional correspondent Kasie Hunt; and former “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace among many others.
Cornish has enjoyed a two-decade stint in journalism. She joined NPR’s National Desk in 2005, reporting from Nashville, covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and other news in the southeastern United States. Cornish later joined the NPR politics team in Washington to cover the 2008 presidential race and the helection of President Barack Obama. Named host of Weekend Edition Sunday in 2011, she earned a George Peabody Award for her work with David Isay’s StoryCorps 9/11 Project, and in 2020, the National Press Foundation recognized her work with the Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. Her feature reporting on the opioid crisis in Baltimore earned a Salute to Excellence Award from National Association of Black Journalists.
“We are thrilled to welcome Audie to CNN Plus and CNN Audio,” said Andrew Morse, CNN’s executive vice president and chief digital officer, who is overseeing the CNN Plus launch. “Her voice has been such an important part of the lives of so many people, and the perspective, integrity and grace that have been hallmarks of her career will make her such an important addition to our teams.”
Cornish was one of three distinguished Black and minority journalists to leave NPR in recent months. Weekend Edition Sunday host Lulu Garcia-Navarro left to host a podcast for The New York Times opinion section in November. The next month, Noel King departed Morning Edition and Up First for Vox.
Cornish will be based in CNN’s Washington, DC bureau.