CNN's Final Broadcast: The Chilling 'Doomsday' Video Reserved for the End of the World

In the nascent days of 24-hour news, as CNN prepared to launch in 1980, founder Ted Turner made a peculiar and profoundly morbid contingency plan. He envisioned his network as a permanent fixture, one that would broadcast until the very end. And for that end, he commissioned a final sign-off: a video to be played only in the event of the apocalypse, just before the last CNN station went dark forever. This artifact, once a closely guarded secret, is now known as the "Turner Doomsday Video," a chilling time capsule from the height of Cold War anxiety.

The Doomsday Directive

Ted Turner's instructions were as simple as they were dramatic. He wanted CNN to be the last voice humanity heard. In an interview, he famously laid out the protocol for the world's final moments:

"We're gonna go on the air, and we're gonna stay on the air, until the end of the world. And when that time comes, we'll cover it, we'll play 'Nearer, My God, to Thee,' and we'll sign off."

The video was given to the network with the explicit instruction: "To be played at the end of the world, as we know it." For decades, it sat waiting, a digital ghost in the machine, ready for a day everyone hoped would never come. It was a symbol of both Turner's eccentric showmanship and a grim acceptance of the nuclear threat that loomed over the era.

A Solemn Farewell

The video itself is stark and devoid of any modern production flair. Shot in 4:3 standard definition, it features a military brass band—the Armed Forces Crier band—standing before what appears to be the old Turner mansion in Atlanta. With solemn precision, they perform the Christian hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee." There is no introduction, no commentary, no final words from an anchor. It is simply the music, played with a quiet dignity, before the video fades to black. The raw, unpolished nature of the footage makes it all the more unsettling, feeling less like a broadcast and more like a historical record of a moment that hasn't happened yet.

"Nearer, My God, to Thee": A Haunting Anthem

The choice of song is what elevates the video from a curious corporate artifact to a piece of cultural legend. "Nearer, My God, to Thee" is irrevocably linked with one of history's most iconic tragedies: the sinking of the RMS Titanic. According to survivor accounts, the ship's band valiantly played this hymn on deck as the vessel sank into the icy Atlantic, a final act of peace and grace in the face of certain death. By choosing this anthem, Turner's video creates a powerful parallel, casting CNN's final broadcast as a dignified, somber farewell to humanity itself—a final, mournful note played as our own ship goes down.

From Secret to Internet Legend

For years, the video was the subject of rumor and speculation among CNN insiders. Its existence was first publicly confirmed in a 2001 New Yorker article. However, it wasn't until 2014 that a former intern, Michael Ballaban, obtained a copy and published it online, finally revealing the doomsday contingency to the world. Almost immediately, it became a viral sensation. What was once a top-secret plan for the apocalypse became a fascinating piece of internet folklore, a relic of a bygone era of media and global politics. It serves as a stark reminder of the palpable nuclear fear of the 1980s and the grand, almost theatrical, vision of the man who started the 24-hour news cycle.

Sources

• Turner Doomsday Video
• The Video CNN Will Play When The World Ends - Jalopnik
• The Lost Tycoon - The New Yorker