Pinnacle (TV program)

Pinnacle is an American weekend news program that aired weekly on CNN from 1982 until 2003.

History

Created and Directed by CNN's Executive Producer, David Sager, and first hosted by Tom Cassidy in 1982, the show focused on interviews with business leaders. Pinnacle became one of CNN's most successful and prominent interview news programs.^[1] Cassidy hosted the show but was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987. Eventually, he had to step down and subsequently died in 1991 at age 41. He was replaced by Beverly Schuch. The series won a News & Documentary Emmy Award in 1992 when the Program turned the Camera around and focused on the life and career of Tom Cassidy as he was dying of Aids. The prestigious Emmy Award was accepted and shared by Executive Producer David Sager and his team, for Schuch's Pinnacle: Special Edition tribute to Tom Cassidy.

For the next 12 years, with Schuch anchoring, the show received high ratings and won numerous awards for news reporting, going beyond business to film finely-crafted cinematic biographical profiles of the world's most fascinating and successful people. Pinnacle set the standard for cinematic documentaries on television. Arguably, PINNACLE, created by David Sager in the mid-80's was one of the very first "Reality TV Shows" created. By the show's 400th episode, the Pinnacle team had filmed 15 years of in-depth profiles of virtually every powerful, successful CEO in America and beyond, as well as leaders in the arts, science and culture.

References

External links

• Tom Cassidy, Anchor With CNN, Dies at 41
• Pinnacle on IMDb