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CNN anchor guides America through another space shuttle mission
When the Columbia space shuttle disintegrated during reentry in February 2003 and CNN's major anchor Aaron Brown was out of pocket, science correspondent Miles O'Brien stepped in. Clearly and calmly, O'Brien--a trained pilot with hundreds of hours logged in the skies--guided viewers through the tragedy.
This pinch-hitting led CNN to name O'Brien co-anchor of the weekday newscast Live From... and, this past June, co-anchor of the high-profile, New York-based American Morning . Working alongside Soledad O'Brien (no relation), O'Brien has helped build the show's audience 12% in news' target demo (viewers 25-54) and 5% in total viewers--to an average 495,000 in July.
"I've been in the business 25 years, and I'm kind of a late bloomer, I guess," he says, wiping off makeup from the three-hour shoot he just wrapped. "I've just kind of plugged along and done what I liked to do."
Getting On The Air
The Detroit native left Georgetown University one semester shy of graduation in 1981 to take a job at the Washington NBC affiliate, where he had been interning. After ripping wire copy on the overnight shift, he would shadow reporters during the day to learn about reporting and shooting segments. He resolved to land an anchor job, and mailed résumés and a cobbled-together demo tape to at least six stations each week.
After collecting enough rejection letters to "wallpaper a...