HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by CNN Worldwide, the network primarily carries true-crime programming, as well as limited live news programming.
The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982, by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News or CNN Headline News), a sister network to CNN that broadcast a looping, half-hour cycle of segments covering various news topics. In 2005, HLN began to diverge from this format and air more personality-based programs, including a primetime block featuring pundits such as Glenn Beck and legal commentator Nancy Grace. In the mid-2010s, HLN repositioned itself as a social media-centric network, highlighting headlines popular on social networks, and introducing social media-themed shows. Under CNN president Jeff Zucker, the channel began to backpedal on this programming in 2016, gradually shifting to a focus on crime, “regional” headlines, and entertainment stories (in contrast to CNN’s current focus on politics) during its daytime programming, with true crime programs.
With the 2022 merger of CNN parent WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery, HLN became a sister to Discovery’s true-crime channel Investigation Discovery (ID). In December 2022, new CNN president Chris Licht announced that HLN would abandon original live news programming entirely as part of a reorganization, with HLN now being overseen by ID’s staff, and news programming limited to a simulcast of CNN This Morning for contractual reasons. The network’s schedule outside of that has primarily featured true crime programs as before, in addition to reruns of crime and legal dramas from the Warner Bros. Television library.