Talkback Live

It has been speculated that in 1993 media mogul Ted Turner, founder of the 24-hour news network, CNN, was inspired to create a talk show after walking through the atrium of the company's headquarters in Atlanta, The CNN Center. As the story goes, Turner walked through the ground floor of the CNN Center and saw the sunlight shining down into the atrium. He had a vision that the side of the atrium, in front of The Turner Store, would be a great place for a talk show. So, one year later, and after millions of dollars in renovations, a portion of The CNN Center food court was transformed into a state-of-the-art broadcast studio that seated over two hundred people and Talkback Live was created. The show was developed and executive produced by CNN's top female executive, Gail Evans.[1] One of CNN's top producers was tapped to head up this new concept, Teya Ryan, an award winning producer in charge of CNN's environmental features.

Talkback Live was billed as the first truly interactive television show. Merging new technology, the internet with television, viewers of the program could call-in like many of CNN's other talk style shows. Viewers could also fax or go online with partner CompuServe to post their comments on the show's topic in a custom chatroom. Comments from faxes and CompuServe were often incorporated into the show. What made the show interactive is that the host would allow panelist and audience members to respond to the fax and online comments. Also, the show partnered with MCI and American University in Washington, D.C. to have students and professors provide comments and questions via desktop video technology. During the first year, Talkback Live went on a 50-city tour. The show became part of an interactive facility at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History. Visitors to the 100-seat Information Age Theater were able to watch the show on a 12-monitor video wall and, one day a week, contribute their comments via videoconferencing.

Talkback Live originally aired from 1-2 PM EDT on CNN's domestic USA network, in the time slot previously occupied by Sonya Live. The show was later pushed back to 3pm to make way for CNN Today.

CNN partnered with online service CompuServe to provide an online forum to host comments on the show's topics. This would later serve as the catalyst to CNN Online or what is now known as CNN.com. The interactive portions of Talkback Live were developed by Chet Burgess, CNN's Executive Producer for Interactive Programming.

Discount drug store chain Drug Emporium was a major sponsor of Talkback Live during the first year of the show. General admission tickets to the show could be found in its Atlanta area stores along with a life-sized poster cutout of Talkback Live host, Susan Rook.

Talkback Live would tackle hot button issues like abortion, sex education, homosexuality and race in America just to name a few. The show's topic was often influenced by what was happening in the news on that day. During the early days of Talkback Live, many of the show's topics were about the O.J. Simpson murder trial. The first show was repeatedly interrupted by coverage of the Simpson case. Many of Talkback Live's panelists went on to further their careers after Talkback Live.

Over the years Talkback Live featured panelists on a variety of topics. Some of the most noteworthy panelists include Major League Baseball player Tom Glavine, CNN Legal Analysts Greta Van Susteren and Roger Cossack, political commentator and feminist Susan Estrich, U.S. Representative J. C. Watts, Jr., CNN Correspondent Art Harris, Defense attorney Ed Garland and political commentator and author Julianne Malveaux.

There were some panelists that used Talkback Live as a stepping stone to bigger opportunities.

Talkback Live was taped in an open air studio in the middle of the CNN Center atrium in downtown Atlanta. Filling the 200 plus seats of the audience was no small task. The show had several staff members dedicated to recruiting audience members for the daily show. Many tourists taking the CNN Studio Tour were often persuaded to sit in the audience. The recruiters or "Audience Coordinators" as they were called often solicited people in popular downtown Atlanta spots with the promise of appearing on live television and a 15-minute MCI pre-paid calling card (MCI sponsored the program's call-in comment line).

Despite consistent ratings, in 2003, Talkback Live was canceled so CNN could extend its coverage of the second Gulf War. The program's end brought about the extension of Live From with Kyra Phillips and Miles O'Brien to a third hour. Talkback Live's final broadcast was on March 7, 2003.

• Susan_Rook_online_shrine at the Wayback Machine (archived October 27, 2009)
• CNN_ALL_POLITICS
• CNN_dumps_9-year-old_Talkback Live
• CNN_Cancels_Talk_Back_Live