Inside CNN Studio Tour

The guide was knowledgable and nice but you didn’t get to see much and some of the things you did see were just mock ups. There are other «VIP» tours where you can see more but weren’t available when I passed through. I would suggest one of the other options besides the regular tour if you really want to see behind the scenes.

It was just ok. Blah. I enjoy tours & seeing behind the scenes at places, but this one was lacking.
I can’t quite put my finger on it.
We didn’t see a live news cast. They did show us several of the behind the scenes rooms, but they looked like any regular call center environment.
I def will not be doing this tour again. The tour for Center for Disease Control sounded neat. I think I will check that one out next time.

I have to agree with the other negative reviews on here– not worth the $ 16.00.
Tour seems short, dated and you really don’t see much at all. The biggest disappointment was the staff– rude attitudes and acted like they were quite put off by even having to give tours. At one point, a younger guy who was guiding the tour group behind us repeatedly snapped his fingers at us, rudely saying «Come on, come on people. Move along, we don’t have time for you to take pictures» pushing us out of the room so his group could move in. At first I thought he must be joking to be such a blatant jerk, but his annoyed face said it all. I almost wanted to find the manager and complain, but I have a strong feeling the entire operation there sucks and it wouldn’t make a difference anyways. If you find groups of tourists annoying, get another job instead of ruining their already overpriced, underwhelming experience.

Booked tickets in advance and arrived on-​time. The check-​in process was fairly easy. The tour was cool, but lackluster. Several of the things we wanted to see were either off-​limits or closed at the time.

We arrived around 12:45 on a Sunday and were able to get tickets for the 1:00 tour. My boyfriend is a veteran so his ticket was free and mine was discounted to $ 13 instead of $ 16. I don’t actually watch CNN (or any other news for that matter) so the tour wasn’t a must do for me, but we figured we might as well while we’re in Atlanta. We learned a little bit about the history of the building and CNN, the different divisions of CNN, and a very high level glimpse of how news is produced. I enjoyed the brief glimpse into the production floor and news studios, even though there wasn’t much action happening. Considering we only paid $ 13 total for both of us to take the tour, I thought it was worth it, but I don’t know if I’d have as favorable of an opinion if we’d paid full price.

This was Very interesting tour very informative and I actually learned a lot that a normal news anchor goes through on a daily basis and how they prepare for their job etc. if you’ve ever wondered how everything works in a news studio this is defiantly the tour for you, I wouldn’t suggest it if you have small children though the tour is guided but not really kid friendly. You even get to start the tour by riding the worlds longest and tallest escalator. One of the interesting facts about the studio is that it actually used to be an indoor amusement park.

Visited today, one of my last attractions, while visiting Atlanta. I pretty much called the day before and scheduled my tour. I managed to find $ 5.00 all day parking behind the lot directory across the street to the Cnn building. The Cnn building is directly across the to Phillips Arena where the Atlanta Hawks play. When I arrived I went directly to admissions, gave her my tickets and she advised me that there was an earlier tour available and I quickly replied Yes. Since we were early, I took advantage of their food court. I went straight to Starbucks and ordered me my liquid crack with a cinnamon raisin bagel.
It was time to head to our tour. The tour consisted of a 50 minute tour guide. Before entering we were checked by security. Our tour guide advisor, told us we can have our phones, but no recording of any type, only pictures could be taken with no flash. I was able to get on the the biggest escalator of the nation, I was a little intimidated by the escalator, I thought we were never going to reach upstairs. We were first taken to a small theater room and three screens were displayed. The tour guide let us listen to some live news recording, that particular recording came all the way from England. Later we were taken in news room no longer in use and how no reporter is not allowed to wear green or blue. Since the screen behind them is actually green. We volunteered and we used the green sheet lifted it in front of our face and on the screen on the right screen on the television we disappeared. How cool was that. We visited their sister station HLN, which was CNN 2 once upon a time, also CNN Español. Pretty much the tour was very interesting. I learned a lot about news casting and reporting. It’s worth the money to see the tour. Almost forgot to mention there is a tremendous food court, plenty of options and selection to choose from. Also there is a Atlanta Police Department sub-​station there too.

Thank God I got free tickets to enter because I don’t understand why anyone would pay for the tour. The tour is about an hour long and you get to hear the director directing behind the scenes of the major shows, how cameras work, and you can see a show taping. The main attraction was the control rooms, see staff on computers and take a ride on the longest freestanding escalator… how amazing right? The tour guide wasn’t really that friendly and wasn’t keeping my attention. Unless you are a journalist enthusiast or just love tall escalators then this is the tour for you! Other then that just eat at the CNN food court for free.

The CNN tour is one of the main highlights of my Atlanta trip! In this short yet informative 50-​minute tour, you get to see and learn behind-​the-​scene of one of the world’s most prominent news channel. It’s definitely a cool experience that should not be missed!
As a start, you ride on the world’s longest freestanding escalator! Then, the tour guide will demonstrate how CNN controls every single change on actual live broadcasts by letting you hear the background control feed and how the news channel film from a mock studio. You will also get to see the HLN studio and main control center as well; if you are lucky, you can catch a live broadcast in action!
No matter what your political stance is, I think it would hard to excuse yourself from seeing the works behind such a famous news channel. Be sure to book a tour online or come early, because this tour is extremely popular!
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tl;dr version:
1) Awesome informative tour behind the famous news channel
2) Come early or book beforehand to avoid disappointment

The CNN Tour is another good way of exploring Atlanta. When I think of CNN, I think of Atlanta… so being there in «the heart of it all» was a unique experience! It’s located downtown in, as you’d expect… the CNN Building. And the CNN Building is huge! There are tons of stores and places to eat… sort of like a big mall. I had some free time while waiting for my tour to begin so I walked around the building and explored. Also, the CNN Building is located near lots of other popular Atlanta attractions including the Omni Hotel, Philips Arena where the NBA Hawks play, Centennial Olympic Park, the Georgia Dome and Underground Atlanta… just to name a few.
The tour doesn’t take long… your standard 45 minutes or so. They take you behind the scenes to the studios and explain how everything comes together to make CNN successful as a worldwide news leader.
I certainly recommend visiting the CNN Studio tour. It gives you a different perspective on how much there really is to see and do when visiting Atlanta! For an extended weekend getaway, Atlanta is a wonderful city!

The tour was cool. Wasn’t the best and you don’t necessarily get to see any of the tapings live. But, you do get to see the studios and they take you to a room where you get to hear how someone sends commands about which camera to show live. Then, it was cool to actually see that show on live TV on the screen next to it seconds later.
We also got to the see the offices of their team which was cool but not that exciting. The building is large and there is a lot of walking down stairs after you go up the long escalator.

If you like going up slow long escalators, taking pictures of yourself sitting in office chairs, observing people looking at computer screens, and walking down 10 flights of stairs, then this is the tour for you. On the other hand, if you like doing fun stuff, ignore this place like the plague. There is nothing interesting about this tour– you don’t see famous people, they rush you through anything remotely interesting because the tour guide seems like he’s in a hurry to show you people sitting in control rooms looking at ESPN. I wanted to sleep every second of this tour but i couldn’t because we had to walk everywhere– so in a sense it was worse than my worst lectures in college.
I think it’s robbery that they sucker tourists to pay 16 dollars for this thing. I REPEAT AVOID THIS TOURIST TRAP LIKE A PLAGUE. There is nothing here worth seeing, you’re better off seeing a 5 minute clip of «Newsroom» on youtube.
EDIT: I forgot the mention this, that office desk that you take a picture in front of, they don’t even allow you to use your own camera. They yelled at some person for using their own personal camera. you’re allow to have a picture as long as you use the picture they took and you pay them an additional amount of money. you can’t take any personal pictures– that is THE WORST. I guess they don’t want evidence of people literally bored out of their minds or actively angry that they paid 16 dollars to waste an hour to basically go up and down stairs.

CNN offers a tour that takes you backstage and offers you the opportunity to see yourself in front of a green screen studio set up. During the week, CNN hosts a daily broadcast from the lobby floor. It’s not rare to see well-​known CNN anchors and journalists down on the floor eating in the massive food court or enjoying the various shops that exist. And of course, you can enjoy the live broadcast of various CNN channels on the Jumbotrons throughout the CNN Center.
Overall, it’s a cool experience and should be experienced at least one time if you are in Atlanta. Located in the center of downtown Atlanta, so that makes it very convenient to hop around to the other museums that are within the area.

Save yourself time and money and do not do this tour!
Unless you want to say you rode on the largest /​longest freestanding escalator in the world, the $ 16 fee for this tour is a total waste.
At the top of the escalator they will take your picture behind a CNN news desk from a decade ago and at the end of the tour try and sell it to you for $ 27.
After that you see more retired equipment and a green wall. They will drape a kid in a green sheet so that all but their head disappears on the screen. You also walk past a newsroom, the International newsroom, CNN Español Newsroom and finally the HLN set which you can’t really see in the first place.
Truly, of all the things I have done since I have been in Atlanta, this has been the worst. The building and food court are worth seeing but spend your time and money elsewhere. Waste of $ 32 and an hour of our day.
Thanks CNN

I came to CNN with high expectations. It is CNN, so I thought the tour would be fantastic. The building is great. but the tour is terrible. There is noting deserve the ticket price! You had to run crazy behind you tour guide who talk a lot, though informative. However, you would never watch any live show! You just walk in two model rooms and then look at an empty studio (I mean does not have a live show) and then look at the guys who are working on social media from the top of their offices. Then, you have to watch a video! Very boring :(I would never recommend the tour for anybody. Just visit the building.

I really enjoyed our CNN Tour. Brian, our guide was friendly and knowledgable. We were lucky that it was a big new weekend, so there were people working when we looked at the various news floors, which made it much more fun.

I’m a CNN fan. With the opportunity to see the inner workings of CNN, it was an easy decision on take the tour.
You have to go to the CNN bldg, let me correct myself. The CNN complex. This place is huge. So huge, the Omni Hotel is on one side of the complex.
After getting my ticket ($ 16), I lined up for my noon tour to begin. First up, the rules (photo ok, no flash, no video and put your phone on silent). Then security, you go through metal detectors. After that a long escalator ride to the 8^th floor where the tour officially begins.
Photo op at a prototype CNN news desk. They will sell you those photo at the end of the tour lol ($ 20 for 1 big photo or $ 25 for 4, 2 big & 2 small).
You get to see how a control room works. How a green screen works. We visited the studios for CNN, HLN, CNN International & CNN Espanol. The tour was very informative.
Final stop, of course the gift shop. Lol.
Our guide Steph was really good. After 45 minutes, I knew more about CNN than I probably needed to know hahaha.
If you like CNN like me, this tour is worth it. Enjoy!
2015 Review #131

This review is for the VIP Tour: I had a great experience and feel that it met my expectations. They took us in a room and explained how the green screen and teleprompter works. We got to go in a control room and on the set of HLN. My favorite thing that I saw was the Newsroom. I was amazed that we had that kind of access to actually be on the newsroom floor where they put the stories together during «regular» business hours. Very cool! Our guide was okay, but I particularly enjoyed chatting with the security guard who has worked there for several years.
The package included a photo-​op with the people I came with behind a CNN staged desk. When we ended the tour, they gave each of us a copy of the picture. Great keepsake.

(2.75 stars) Our tour of the CNN studios and facilities, brought us thru the home of this media giant. The tour began with a ride on an eight story freestanding escalator, described as being the longest in the world. Frankly, I’m not in the general habit of accepting what I might hear from CNN at face-​value, but a quick fact-​check proved this factoid to be valid. Beyond this grand ascent, the tour’s decent is by way of countless stairways, each opening to another facet of a busy corporation engaged in its day-​to-​day activities.
Few of these operations are geared to the entertainment of tour visitors, and focus upon looking down from glass enclosed catwalks at working folks doing nothing particularly interesting. Our future daughter-​in-​law described the experience as being akin to «staring at an ant farm,» and I believe that this hit the nail on the head. The exception, and the highlight of the tour, was an interactive demonstration of the technologies and «secrets» of a television weather broadcast. This was very well done, and was quite interesting.
Eye-​opening to me were the number of affiliated news operations within the CNN family, as most were unfamiliar to me. If pressed to name the second most interesting area of CNN Center, my answer would likely be «the food court,» and it wasn’t a part of this tour. Unlike the Inside CNN Studio Tour, at least the food court was air conditioned.
As others have previously noted, «expensive and uninteresting.» The overall impression was that the Inside CNN Studio Tour was merely a weak attempt to «go thru the motions» of accommodating visitors, and to inflate a sense of relevance which CNN hasn’t enjoyed for over a decade. Recommended only for hardcore CNN junkies (itself a disconcerting notion) or those not wishing to travel to the Atlanta History Center to use their last CityPass ticket.

As a former print journalist, I’ve always had a somewhat low opinion of television news. This tour did nothing to change that, but it was a reasonably informative overview of the cable news production process.
The tour begins in an atrium shared with the Omni Hotel. From there, you ride the world’s steepest elevator up eight floors and are led, room by room, on a tour that shows off the CNN and HLN newsrooms, smartboard and green screen technology, teleprompters, and other aspects of news production.
Our guide was very knowledgeable and did a good job of fielding questions, but the tour lacked interactivity. Though the Inside CNN tour wasn’t the time-​waster that World of Coca Cola proved to be, it isn’t a must-​see unless you are an avid CNN viewer.

I suggest doing the VIP tour if you really want to make this place worth your time. They take you in the newsrooms of CNN and HLN and also inside of a HLN Studio 7. You are not granted access to these things on the normal tour, so the VIP instantly is worth it. Each person also gets their news desk photo for free. Our tour guide was upbeat. She handled the tour very well, especially when there was a younger kid asking too many questions. She didn’t lose her cool or get snappy, she did her best to answer his questions– even if the answer was literally staring him in the face.
Overall the tour was great, it took us about an hour. There’s a lot of food downstairs, so if you need to catch food before or after, there’s tons of places to get it.
I did think the tour focused a little much on HLN and not enough on CNN. For instance, the studio we were taken into was a HLN studio, not a CNN studio. We did get to see the CNN Newsroom, which was really cool. There were people working at their desks and you really got to see things in motion. The HLN newsroom was much smaller and no one was working in there. I personally don’t watch HLN, but it was still interesting to see an actual studio that’s used for filming.

The CNN Center is another Atlanta tourist trap that you should visit at least once in your lifetime. It is formerly home of the world’s largest indoor theme park before Ted Turner took it over. The CNN Center has a separate entrance to Phillips Arena as well as access to the Omni Hotel. There is a food court with many choices (Chick-​fil-​A perhaps) for those who have a hunger strike. Tour prices are reasonable but you can also use the Atlanta CityPass. The tours are guided and lasts around an hour. The pictures at the news desk are around the $ 20 range. Items in the gift shop are a bit pricey. Informational and very educational. One of the great true landmarks of Downtown Atlanta.

Besides numerous typographical errors throughout the tour in typical CNN fashion, admission with City Pass helped cushion the blow a bit. Tour guide did a nice job, but I still won’t be watching for anything other than Parts Unknown.

Greetings all!
CNN Tour on Friday, June 19, 2015
Was long and hot! The tour guide was rude to some of the students in my group and to some of the other random families that paid for the tour! I think the heat had something to do with his not so friendly or helpful behavior.
Great exercise!
Note: If for any reason due to a broken/​fracture foot or any handicap situation schedule the tour for those limitations! I wish we would have known about it! Hint!
I would not recommend this tour for anyone with physical limitations or children under the age of 10yrs. old!

So this is a tour I have taken so many times I don’t even dare disclose it. Every time I can convince people who are visiting Atlanta to go I definitely go with them.
First of all it’s fascinating to see the world’s largest and best run news programs in action. Since they are 24 seven operation (the tour is not) it is very likely you will run into famous people that you see on TV all the time.
This is one of the top five things I recommend everyone do if they get a chance to visit downtown Atlanta for a holiday. With that said this tour is not terribly long so even if you’re here for something else and only have a little more than an hour and just want to see something very Atlanta unique then I would pick this place.
You could even do it over lunch time because there’s a food court with lots of options as well as a couple of really nice restaurants not too far of a walk. The more sitdown restaurants and food McCormick and Schmitd’s as well as legal seafood.

«CNN Headquarters… take a tour». This was a treat to get to come here and take a tour of the studios. I was a bit frightened at first, when we walked in because there were so many random people just walking in off the street. There was NO SECURITY check upon entering the building. This completely surprised me because just to enter the Coca-​Cola World store, my bags needed to be checked! We happened to visit, when news broke out about cops getting shot in NYC and news about it was on all their big screens inside. Have you ever walked into a place and felt extremely vulnerable? Well, this was how I felt.
Anyway, aside from me being a fraidy-​cat, my family and I really did enjoy ourselves. We signed up to take the tour of the studio. By the way, they have a VIP tour, which I would have loved to take, but no kids under 10, I think? The tour that we chose was sufficient. It was about an hour-​long tour, which consisted of seeing a green-​screen demo, a few newsrooms and just getting the inside scoop on their history. Our tour guide was very informative and energetic and I was surprised to learn that she had only been there for 3 short months, but was a very eloquent speaker. Christine kept everyone engaged, including my 5-​year old daughter. Of course I was hoping for a sighting of oh-​so-​famous journalists Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour… eh, total long shot, I know! Just before the tour started, we did get your pic in a news faux-​news desk, which was nifty, definitely a keeper!
If you are or aren’t a news junkie, even if you love or hate CNN, this is definitely one of those touristy things to do, while visiting the beautiful city of Atlanta. You won’t go hungry either; there is a plethora of dining options to choose from in their massive food court (on the first floor).
* CNN tour * See the newsrooms * Things to do in Atlanta * Kid-​friendly things to do in Atlanta *

This is a very informative and less interactive. I thought it would be interesting to see the headquarters of CNN and it was in a way worth it, but not as fun as I would had hoped. A couple places where I wanted to take pictures but they would not allow you to take with your personal camera, only their camera. Also in one of the replica HLN rooms they only let us see it from afar and not play around with it. I wish they would add a couple more fun activities to get the crowd more involve. I am sure a lot of people are interested in the facts but some probably want to do more than just hear a bunch of information.
Overall I would rate this a ⁴⁄₅. It is very interesting to see how things work behind the screen. However I do not think it is quite worth the price. I do recommend going since there are some great opportunities and maybe have a chance to see some celebrities news people.

This was really cool. We really enjoyed seeing the behind-​the-​scenes of making TV news. There are lots and lots of tours, so this is a relatively «sure thing» to get it to see, and if I recall it’s not as pricey as the World of Coca-​Cola or the Aquarium.
The best part is probably getting to see them actually filming live and watching people do their work at their desks, haha. The example sets and things are cool but a bit dated-​feeling and just feel like a museum. Not that there’s anything wrong with museums — I love them!
There is, of course, the obligatory tourist photo opp thing where they let you sit at a news desk and then later you can pay for a copy of the picture. We passed on that. It doesn’t really feel «real», to me anyway.
The information on the tour was pretty informative, though, and it’s cool to see a major news operation still working actively out of a city that isn’t New York or LA.

You can buy a packages that will get you admission to World of Coke, the Aquarium and CNN and other attractions as well but we decided to just get the tickets in the lobby.
You have to buy your tickets and then they will make you line up ahead of time a certain amount of time prior to the next tour. These tours go on all day and are scheduled every quarter hour or so but there is still a line up you have to get in so when it is your turn the group moves when it is ready to go.
You will take a very long escalator up and they mention something to the effect that it is or used to be the longest unsupported escalator or something like that. You’ll get up at the top where there is another staging area before you move into a room that has a lot of TV type things going on and then the tour is pretty much under way. You’ll get to see things such as green screen and one of the people on your tour can participate in a mock newscast just to experience it.
You’ll see the actual offices where the information gets gathered etc as well as towards the end depending on what time it is you’ll see a show being broadcasted.
Overall it’s a cool tour and it lasts long enough. You get so see some behind the scenes things but everything is from a distance.

Eine wirklich tolle kurze Tour durch das CNN World HQ ist interessant, und zeigt, wie komplex die Berichterstattung weltweiter Events ist, und gleichzeitig wie einfach solche Studios organisiert sind. Im CNN Center kann man nebenbei noch toll essen, sei es alle Arten von Fast Food oder in höherwertigen Restaurants.

Interessanter als die World of Coca Cola, aber die Welt dreht sich auch weiter, wenn man sich diese tour gespart hat. Wer den Atlanta City Pass hat kann sich die Tour guten Gewissens ansehen, und ein paar Blicke hinter die Kulissen von CNN und allgemeine Fernsehtechnik werfen (Stop 1 – 3 der Tour).
Aber ansonsten hat man hier nichts verpasst

Interessante Einblicke hinter die Kulissen von CNN. Die Führung dauert etwa eine Stunde, man sollte allerdings gut zu Fuß sein, da man sehr viele Treppen steigen muss. Aber lohnenswert ist das Gebäude und die Führung auf jeden Fall

die cnn studio tours sind im atlanta ticket mit enthalten. und so kann man sich eine knappe einstündige führung durch ted turners medienimperium geben. man sieht wie ein studio aufgebaut ist. man sieht wie sendungen gemacht werden. man kann auch in die redaktionen reinschauen. das besonderste ist aber wohl die freistehende rolltreppe, die über fünf (?) stockwerke hochfährt. wenn man das ticket hat, dann sollte man das auch machen. sonst nichts wirklich besonderes.
das center selber ist auch sehr nett mit einem riesen food court und einem eingang in die phillips arena. hier kann man gut warten, bevor man zum spiel reingeht.