CNN Names Two New Executive Producers

Melanie Buck has been named the Executive Producer of Cuomo Prime Time. She was previously the Executive Producer of State of the Union with Jake Tapper in Washington, DC where her team helped drive CNN’s political coverage. She oversaw interviews with major newsmakers, from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Parkland, Florida Sheriff Scott Israel after the Stoneman Douglas shooting.

Prior to joining State of the Union, Buck was a Supervising Producer for The Lead with Jake Tapper and an integral player on the show’s successful launch. During her tenure at CNN, she has covered numerous presidential and midterm elections and was part of a key group of producers working on presidential debates. Buck started at CNN as a News Assistant and soon joined The Situation Room where she served as Wolf Blitzer’s anchor producer. While on The Situation Room, Buck won a News and Documentary Emmy® Award for live coverage of the revolution in Egypt and President Mubarak stepping down.

Succeeding Buck at State of the Union with Jake Tapper will be Abigail Crutchfield. She has spent the past year as senior producer on the program, while also contributing to CNN’s Town Hall and Debates and special events including the James Comey town hall in Virginia and Stoneman Douglas Students town hall in South Florida.

Prior to joining State of the Union, Crutchfield was Dana Bash’s producer covering the 2016 presidential election and early Trump Administration – serving on CNN’s presidential debate teams, covering the GOP and Democratic conventions, producing a foreign trip to South Korea and Japan with Vice President Pence, and also producing CNN’s digital series Badass Women of Washington.  Prior to her move to DC, Abigail worked as a producer on New Day and as anchor producer to Kate Bolduan and John Berman.