CNN Ted Turner’s eerie end of the world signoff sparks prophecy fears | World | News
A resurfaced CNN clip featuring the late Ted Turner has led some viewers to believe a chilling prophecy may now be revealed.
Following the death of the 87-year-old man who founded CNN, images from his past surfaced and a clip immediately raised questions among social media users. Dubbed the “Turner Doomsday Video,” it is a one-minute clip produced before CNN’s launch in 1980 and was intended to be broadcast only in the event of civilization collapsing.
In the short clip, Turner promises that CNN will stay on the air until the end of the world. In his message, he said, “Except for satellite issues, we will not sign until the end of the world.
“We will broadcast it, we will livestream the end of the world, and it will be our last event. We will play the National Anthem only once, on the first of June. [the day CNN launched]”And when the world ends, we’ll play ‘Nearer My God To Thee’ before we sign,” he continued.
The footage, which left many viewers deeply uneasy, was shot outside CNN’s original headquarters on the Turner Broadcasting Techwood campus in Atlanta.
Musicians from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps bands stand in orderly formations and are dressed in full ceremonial uniforms.
The haunting clip contains no narration or explanation of what viewers witnessed. As Turner notes, the band performs Nearer, My God, to Thee, a Christian hymn commonly associated with the final moments on the Titanic. The clip lasts just over a minute and fades to black, seemingly signaling the end of the broadcast, or even the end of the world.
Following Turner’s reference to the 1980 “end of the world” broadcast clip, many dismissed it as nothing more than a myth. However, the footage remained hidden in CNN archives for years until it finally came to light.
The video is emblematic of Cold War-era contingency planning, but given today’s volatile political climate, it seems disturbingly topical.
Turner is widely credited as the pioneer of 24-hour news broadcasting, a concept considered completely absurd at the time. The Doomsday clip has been considered a testament to Turner’s unwavering commitment to informing the public even in humanity’s darkest hour.
Rising tensions between the world’s most powerful nations have led a growing number of people to conclude that the end of the world is not far off.
A study published in March 2026 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that nearly 1 in 3 Americans believe the world will end within their lifetime due to underlying causes such as nuclear war and climate change.
