The program premiered on January 18, 2009, originally with
John King as host, and aired from 9:00am to 1:00pm ET (though only the 9:00am and noon ET hours are simulcast on
CNN International) and from 8:00pm to 9:00pm ET. It features news analysis and interviews with politicians, reporters, and newsmakers, as well as the "
Magic Wall", an interactive touch screen map previously used by King to cover the
2008 presidential election. At four hours long, it was by far the longest of the Sunday talk shows. It was created as a merger between
Reliable Sources and
Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer;
Reliable Sources continued unchanged as a one-hour "segment" of
State of the Union. On February 11, 2009, CNN announced it had hired former
Meet the Press producer Michelle Jaconi as the executive producer of the program. On a January 31, 2010, broadcast, John King announced that senior political correspondent
Candy Crowley would become the new anchor of the program, following King's move to take over
Lou Dobbs'
former timeslot. In the move, the program was cut from four hours to one, and the
Reliable Sources "show within a show" was spun off once again as its own program. After Crowley left CNN in December 2014,
State of the Union had a series of fill-ins until
Jake Tapper was named permanent host in April 2015. In January 2021, CNN announced that
Dana Bash would join Tapper as a co-host, with the two alternating Sundays hosting. ==References==