George Clooney in Good Night, and Good Luck on CNN: The Live Broadcast's Most Notable Moments — Plus, Grade It!
Couldn't get a ticket to see George Clooney make his Broadway debut in Good Night, and Good Luck? Take heart: On Saturday, CNN broadcast the play's penultimate performance — live — as a commercial-free TV event.
Based on the 2005 film of the same name, Good Night, and Good Luck stars ER alum Clooney as legendary CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow. The true story takes place in the 1950s, as Murrow came under fire for criticizing Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who levied unsubstantiated charges of communism at various Americans during the Cold War.
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The 100-minute production ran without intermission, as it has since it opened at New York's Winter Garden Theatre on April 3. Clooney directed the film, in which he played Murrow's producer, Fred Friendly. In the Broadway show, Friendly is played by Glenn Fleshler (True Detective). Clooney and Grant Heslov wrote both the movie and the play.
The play's cast also includes Clark Gregg (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Ilana Glazer (Broad City), Carter Hudson, Paul Gross, Christopher Denham, Fran Kraz, Mac Brandt, Will Dagger and Georgia Heers. The production is nominated for five Tony Awards, including Clooney for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play. (A quick note: Though the CNN-provided press photos below are black-and-white, the broadcast was in color.)
Readers of a certain age will remember that George Clooney took part in the live Season 4 premiere of ER in 1997. So how did his latest live bid go? Scroll through our list of notable moments below.
McCarthy couldn't have succeeded in his campaign of fear-mongering had the political and social climate of the time not allowed him to, Murrow pointed out in a broadcast that uses the politician's own words to indict him. 'The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies,' he said. 'And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it — and rather successfully. Cassius was right. 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.''
Though Gregg's Don Hollenback is the show's tragic figure — Hollenback, a CBS newscaster who was accused of leftist leanings, died by suicide — Clooney and Gregg shared a scene at roughly the hour-mark in which Clooney seemed to be on the verge of laughing (when the script didn't call for it). But both men pulled it together, and the show continued apace.
The show's scenic design, which earned Scott Pask a 2025 Tony nomination, allowed Clooney & Co. to move throughout CBS' newsroom with ease and purpose. The control room, the conference room, the broadcasting booth — all evoked a bustling newsgathering operation of the era, with video screens deployed to show the audience what viewers at home would've seen at the time.
The serious nature of the story doesn't allow for a lot of comedy. That said, if there was a line that got a big laugh from the live audience, it was delivered by Fleshler as Friendly.
Clooney delivered the play's final monologue, pulled from a speech Murrow gave to an association of radio and television journalists in 1958, at a lectern in front of a giant screen — even bigger than the one shown here. Huge moments in news and pop culture appeared in a montage as he spoke about how television news — and TV in general — wouldn't cater to the lowest common denominator if the audience didn't repeatedly show up for exactly that sort of content.
'Our history will be what we make of it,' Clooney-as-Murrow warned, rebuking those who'd choose programming that entertains without informing. The montage unfolded, featuring I Love Lucy, Elvis Presley, John F. Kennedy's assassination, Laugh In, the Challenger explosion, The Jerry Springer Show, the first plane flying into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, Megyn Kelly insisting that Santa is white, conspiracy theories about the attempted Jan. 6 coup, Beyoncé, and a ton more images before culminating in Elon Musk giving an alleged Nazi salute.
'The question is not what power unchecked can do. We've seen that answered,' he said. 'The question is, what are you prepared to do?… Good night, and good luck.'
What did you think of the live telecast? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments with all of your thoughts!
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