CNN Goes MTV, Debuts New REM Song

 On October 23 and 24, CNN’s Anderson Cooper will host the highly anticipated four-hour documentary Planet in Peril, covering environmental change across the globe in four categories: climate change, deforestation, species loss and overpopulation.

On October 10, on Anderson Cooper 360,  his nightly news program, Cooper will be presenting a preview of the documentary; in doing so, he will be taking a cue from a network a bit farther up on the cable dial, debuting rock group REM’s new song Until the Day is Done.

The song is from REM’s forthcoming album, set to drop next Spring. The album is produced by Warner Bros. Records, a sister company to CNN within the Time Warner umbrella. After it appears on the show, the trailer will be on CNN.com and on Cooper’s podcast.

So is Anderson Cooper (below) the next big VJ? Well, probably not, the song will be matched to clips from Planet in Peril, and hopefully the buzz will be about the documentary, not the song from the trailer.  

                                  
Still, it strikes me as a bit trite, Planet in Peril has garnered tremendous buzz already, is a new song from REM really going to reach people who may not otherwise think about tuning in?

It appears to be a one-shot deal; hopefully it will stay that way. I wouldn’t want to see Britney’s new music video debuting right before her next court hearing, so how about we keep the music videos relegated to MTV 8, or wherever they dump them nowadays.