Talkback Live

Talkback Live is a talk show on CNN that lasted from 1994 until 2003. It aired from 3 to 4 pm Eastern Time and was hosted at various times by Susan Rook, Bobbie Battista, Jeff Hullinger, Karyn Bryant, and Arthel Neville. The audience participation show originated from a specially constructed stage in the atrium of the CNN Center. It was canceled in favor of extending Live From for an additional hour.

It has been widely 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 revelation that the side of 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. 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 World Wide Web or what was then called the information superhighway 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. Talkback Live originally aired from 1-2 pm on CNN/USA in the time slot previously occupied by Sonya Live. The show was later pushed back to 3pm to make way for CNN Today.

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