The program, on which the two men debated political issues, was highly praised, but its ratings were low and, in 1982, it was cancelled.

The program put the day's most important newsmaker in the spotlight, caught between a conservative and a liberal journalist.

CNN's owner, Ted Turner, objected to their hiring but Braden and Buchanan, with a signed contract, threatened a lawsuit.

His replacement was conservative columnist Robert Novak, who already had a talk show on CNN and was at the time also a regular on The McLaughlin Group.

In late 1991, Buchanan left the program to pursue the 1992 Republican Party nomination for the presidency, and was replaced by John Sununu in the conservative seat.

After a few months Snow left for the newly formed Fox News Channel, to be replaced by Lynne Cheney.

However, the show began to lose its audience, with the increasing popularity of alternatives like Hannity and Colmes on the Fox News Channel and Hardball on MSNBC.

The new style did not rate well, and in April 2003, Crossfire was reduced back to just half an hour and moved from prime-time to an afternoon slot.

He said the program failed its responsibility to the public discourse and indulged in partisan hackery, reducing news coverage of important issues to a series of talking points from both extremes of the political spectrum: "It's hurting America.

Stewart argued that unlike Carlson and Begala he was a comedian, not a journalist, and therefore it was not his role to conduct hard-hitting interviews.

[12] In the news release containing the announcement, Klein indicated that he wanted to change the tone of shows on the network, and in interviews said he sympathized with Jon Stewart's criticisms of Crossfire.

"[13] The last episode aired on June 3, 2005 and the Crossfire pundits began appearing on Inside Politics the following Monday before relocating to that show's successor, The Situation Room.

However, the GWU Crossfire set remained in use for the CNN weekend program On The Story, which had an audience interaction format.

A revival of Crossfire was announced on June 26, 2013, for a premiere in late 2013, with panelists Newt Gingrich, S. E. Cupp, Stephanie Cutter, and Van Jones.

[2] CNN announced a launch of September 9, at the end of the Congressional recess and probable proposal by the White House to take some action against Syria.