Pamela Brown and Wolf Blitzer are used to anchoring their own shows on CNN, but not together. However, the pair are now co-anchoring a new-look The Situation Room.
Blitzer had hosted the daily program since 2005 in the evening time slot, while Brown previously served as host of CNN Newsroom. Brown would also fill in for Blitzer on The Situation Room when he was away. That all changed on March 3, when the network relaunched the show as a two-hour morning program, pairing up the two veteran reporters.
“There’s a lot of news happening [in the] late mornings, not only here in the U.S., but around the world between 10:00 and 12:00 Eastern time,” Blizter told People in a recent interview. “You got to roll with the punches.”
Brown agreed with her new co-host, saying, “Any given day, there’s just so much news happening in those hours. We build this beautiful show, and there’s a lot of throwing that out the window because of breaking news during our hours.”
The new show is a “full-circle” moment for the two hosts, who originally met in January 1994 at the Super Bowl. Brown’s late mother, a former Miss America 1971 who provided coverage for The NFL Today for many years, and thanks to her mother’s friendship with then-CNN President Tom Johnson, Brown and her family were invited to attend Super Bowl XXVIII in Atlanta.
It was at that event, where the Dallas Cowboys beat Blitzer’s beloved Buffalo Bills when an 11-year-old Brown first met the man who would one day become her co-anchor.
“It’s pretty surreal. As a kid, I met Wolf, and I had no idea about his job. I was more intrigued and captivated by his name,” Brown told the outlet. “[Years later], I saw him on CNN. I believe he was covering one of the wars. I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh. I want to do that one day. I want to do what he’s doing.’ ”
A proud Blitzer chimed in to say, “And she’s doing it!”
Brown, who before joining CNN worked for the ABC Washington, D.C. affiliate WJLA-TV, said she reached out to Blitzer many years ago for advice, and he told her, “‘You should come to CNN and be on The Situation Room with me.’”
“It took a few years,” Blitzer added. “But it happened.”
As for the new edition of The Situation Room, Blitzer said, “Things have been going very, very nicely. I think we’re both enjoying it… And most importantly, our viewers are enjoying it.”
Brown added, “Not everyone gets to call someone that they really looked up to and admired as a child, their colleague. So it’s really cool.”
The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown, Weekdays, 10 am 12 pm et, CNN