CNN to Revive ‘Crossfire,’ Early Home for Political Shouting Matches

John Harrington/CNN, via Reuters

Crossfire, in 2002, with James Carville, Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson trading arguments.

“Crossfire,” the forerunner to so many television debates and shouting matches, is coming back to CNN, the cable news channel announced on Wednesday.

The format will be the same as it was in the 1980s and ‘90s â€" two hosts each day, one from a liberal perspective and the other from a conservative perspective. But the stable of political pundits exchanging verbal fire will be new.

The conservatives will be Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House and presidential candidate, and S. E. Cupp, a television commentator who is joining CNN from MSNBC. The liberals will be Stephanie Cutter, the deputy campaign manager for President Obama’s 2012 campaign, and Van Jones, an activist and former special adviser to Mr. Obama for green jobs.

CNN said the program would return this fall. It did not specify a premiere date or a time slot, but the late afternoon or early evening is most likely. The channel’s plan was first reported in April by TVNewser.

More than eight years after it was canceled, “Crossfire” is still one of the most widely known cable news programs, but it has also been widely derided, as evidenced by the mixed reactions online to CNN’s announcement on Wednesday morning. Some media critics and commentators have denounced the program for wedging complex arguments into a left-right rubric and promoting political polarization. (In the famous words of Jon Stewart during his 2004 appearance on the program, “It’s hurting America.” CNN canceled the show the next year.)

Others have praised “Crossfire” for pioneering a form of televised debate and for presenting multiple points of views about thorny issues. For CNN, the restoration may be intended as a statement that the channel is a television home for all sides, in contrast to Fox News, which is associated with the right, and MSNBC, which is associated with the left.

Jeff Zucker, who took over as president of CNN in January, said in a statement on Wednesday: “Few programs in the history of CNN have had the kind of impact on political discourse that ‘Crossfire’ did. It was a terrific program then, and we believe the time is right to bring it back and do it again.”

He added: “We look forward to the opportunity to host passionate conversation from all sides of the political spectrum. ‘Crossfire’ will be the forum where America holds its great debates.”

The program will air from CNN’s Washington bureau.

“Crossfire” will give Mr. Gingrich, who was a paid contributor at Fox News until he made his unsuccessful bid for president in 2012, a high-profile new perch. In April, when he confirmed that he was in talks with CNN about a job there, he said he was intrigued by the prospect of discussing serious issues.

None of the other co-hosts â€" Mr. Jones, Ms. Cutter and Ms. Cupp â€" have run for office, but they have ample experience in and around campaigns. Ms. Cupp was hired away from MSNBC, where she has been a co-host of the political panel discussion show “The Cycle” for the past year. She was the only reliably conservative voice on that show. MSNBC issued a statement on Wednesday thanking Ms. Cupp for her “great work,” and said it would have more to say about her replacement soon.

Ms. Cupp will keep her other job, as a contributor to Glenn Beck’s Internet and television network TheBlaze, CNN said.