CNN Made a Prerecorded Video to be Broadcast on Doomsday, and It’s Hilariously Intriguing

Doomsday and apocalypse fantasy continue to live on as the most followed genre in the literature and entertainment industry. A lot of movies and music have been inspired and based in a dystopian future hinting at plans to combat any such mishap. CNN network also surprisingly has a plan in store if doomsday were to hit us someday in the future — that of a prerecorded video.

CNN founder Ted Turner was a great believer of the theory and interestingly, the video has its origin story that dates decades back to when the Cable News Network (CNN) was first launched. Anticipating a time when the news service may not be available on television due to unforeseen circumstances, Turner planned on making a doomsday clip to be broadcast before bidding adieu.

"We'll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event. We'll play the National Anthem only one time, on the first of June [the day CNN launched], and when the end of the world comes, we'll play 'Nearer My God To Thee' before we sign off," Turner said as he launched CNN, according to Jalopnik.

According to the NY Post, the videotape has been titled "HFR (hold for release) until the end of the world is confirmed." A lot of people thought Turner was joking when he shared his plan. The video was, however, leaked in the year 2015, which gave the viewers a new perspective on what he believed the last day on planet Earth would look like. The one-minute-long video has a grainy recording of a lot happening but with no clue to the message behind it. It has been kept on CNN’s MIRA archive system, under the name TURNER DOOMSDAY VIDEO. 

Considering the psyche behind its compilation several noted that the decade of the 1980s was marred by several nuclear war threats. Amid the Cold War and other polarization situations, the compilation of such a video made sense as not much was clearly predictable global events like World War II and the Cuban Missile Crisis had preceded the making of the video. It is also to be noted that before CNN the broadcasting of news had a limited allotted time. Hence, the decision to never go out of radar was a statement that was immortalized by the Doomsday clip.

Journalist Michael Ballaban, who declassified the video, revealed that his college professor (who had been associated with the network for 20 years) would often share the lore of the video with them as students. Ballaban declared that he among many others found it bizarre and unreal. However, things turned upside down when he himself witnessed the 'weird' video. Questions remain as to who will be the one fated to share this video with the word if something truly dire occurs... but that is a matter for another day.