Turner Doomsday Video


"Turner Doomsday Video" is the internal title of a video intended to be broadcast by CNN at the end of the world. The video, created at the direction of CNN founder Ted Turner before the network's 1980 launch, is a performance of the Christian hymn "Nearer My God To Thee" performed by multiple members of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine bands.

History

The recording was made right after "The Star-Spangled Banner" was recorded for CNN's sign-on. After they recorded it, Turner asked if they would record a song just in case the world came to an end.
At CNN's launch, Ted Turner declared, "Barring satellite problems, we won't be signing off until the world ends."
The video is in standard definition and the 4:3 aspect ratio in use at the time of its production.

In popular culture

Rumors of the video have existed as early as 1988, when The New Yorker published an article describing it. However, the video did not become available to the public until 2015, when a writer for Jalopnik revealed a copy of the video that he had recorded during a 2009 internship.
In the 1990 comedy film , the character Daniel Clamp has a similar "end of civilization" video ready to air on his news network. After the leak of the CNN video, director Joe Dante joked, "I think ours was better."