For all their ability to react instantly to a developing story, cable news channels can be surprisingly slow to make changes in their own houses. Until last week, Fox News had not altered its early evening lineup in eight years.
But the cable landscape has been reshaped in recent weeks with each of the three news channels bringing in new talent to anchor some of their most competitive hours.
And bucking a long-standing trend, two of the networks have ousted ideologically charged personalities in favor of more traditional and experienced journalists.
Nowhere is this upgrade more apparent than at MSNBC where Tucker Carlson, the bow-tied conservative pundit, has been replaced by NBC's senior White House correspondent David Gregory during the highly competitive timeslot of 6 p.m. weeknights. At 37, Gregory is already one of the most respected reporters in the Washington press corps.
Fox executives, meanwhile, have replaced one of the most reckless performers in TV news, John Gibson, with former CNN reporter-anchorman Bill Hemmer. The new Fox lineup features America's Election HQ, with Hemmer and Megyn Kelly, at 5 p.m. instead of Gibson's The Big Story.
At CNN, Campbell Brown, a former NBC White House correspondent who won an Emmy for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina, took over on March 10 as anchor of CNN Election Center, which airs weeknights at 8 in the heart of prime time.
The one thing all the new cable programs have in common is a focus on the presidential election and politics. And the reason for that is not hard to divine: Unprecedented viewer interest in the candidates has led to record ratings for debate and campaign coverage.
But it's the nature of the change within the shift of onscreen lineups - the movement back to the use of serious journalists and the showcasing of reliable information rather than overheated invective and opinion - that may prove to be the bigger and more enduring story, according to analysts and news executives.
In the short term at least, it certainly seems to be good news for viewers, citizens and democracy.
"One of the things partially driving the changes you see onscreen is the fact that this is not just your standard exciting election - the excitement is on overdrive," says Phil Griffin, the NBC News senior vice president in charge of MSNBC. "You have the possibility of the first black president, the possibility of the first female president. You have an American hero in John McCain and his story."
