CNN and other Warner Bros. Discovery networks were knocked off the air by a widespread technical breakdown Monday afternoon, leaving viewers staring at frozen screens and a jumble of pixelated images.
The outage struck shortly after noon Eastern and affected multiple channels under the media giant’s umbrella, including HBO, TNT and TBS.
CNN was airing an “Inside Politics” panel discussion about President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada when the broadcast suddenly froze before dissolving into blocks of color and fragmented images.
The on-air meltdown sent confused viewers scrambling to social media for answers as the disruption dragged on. The impact varied depending on how customers received the affected channels.
>> @DanaBashCNN just acknowledged the CNN outage on air: “Welcome back and we ARE back. There was a technical issue across Warner Bros. Discovery’s channels that resulted in losing our signal. We’re very sorry for the interruption.” pic.twitter.com/sEc7wnm3xB
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 24, 2026
A spokesperson attributed the outage to a “technical issue across Warner Bros. Discovery,” CNN’s parent company.
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The network restored its signal nearly an hour later.
At 12:51 p.m., “Inside Politics” anchor Dana Bash addressed the glitch and apologized to viewers.
“Welcome back and we are back. There was a technical issue across Warner Bros. Discovery’s channels that resulted in losing our signal. We’re very sorry for the interruption.”
