Ted Turner, the Atlanta media mogul who founded CNN, owned World Championship Wrestling, and kept professional wrestling on his Superstation WTBS for nearly 30 straight years, has died at the age of 87. The death was confirmed Wednesday by CNN in a release from Turner Enterprises.
Turner, born Robert Edward Turner III on November 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Ohio, built one of the most consequential media empires in American history. He took control of his late father’s Atlanta billboard business in 1963 at age 24, bought UHF station Channel 17 in Atlanta in 1970, and used satellite uplink technology to make it one of cable’s first national superstations in 1976. The station became WTBS in 1979 and TBS later. He launched CNN on June 1, 1980, as the first 24-hour all-news network. He launched TNT in October 1988, the Cartoon Network in October 1992, and Turner Classic Movies in April 1994. He acquired the MGM film library, which became the backbone of his cable channels.
For pro wrestling fans, Turner’s most important decision came in 1970, when he bought Channel 17 and chose to keep its existing pro wrestling programming on the schedule. By 1972, he had moved Georgia Championship Wrestling to a 6:05 p.m. Saturday slot that became the most consistent block of pro wrestling on American television for the next two decades.
In July 1984, Vince McMahon bought a controlling interest in Georgia Championship Wrestling and replaced GCW programming on WTBS with WWF programming, an event known in wrestling as Black Saturday. Turner was reportedly furious. The WWF replacement programming bombed, and within months McMahon sold the WTBS slot back. Jim Crockett Promotions took over the Saturday night block under the World Championship Wrestling banner, restoring NWA-style wrestling to the Superstation. When Crockett ran into financial trouble in 1988, Turner Broadcasting bought the company outright in November 1988 for $9 million and rebranded it as World Championship Wrestling.
Under Turner’s ownership, WCW became the only pro wrestling company in modern American history to consistently lead Vince McMahon’s WWF in television ratings. Eric Bischoff was promoted to Executive Producer in 1993, and at a 1995 meeting Turner asked Bischoff what WCW would need to compete with the WWF. Bischoff said prime time. Turner gave him a Monday slot on TNT and the budget to chase WWF roster members. WCW Monday Nitro premiered on September 4, 1995. The decision started the Monday Night Wars. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Sting, Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Bret Hart all worked under Turner’s banner. The New World Order storyline launched at Bash at the Beach 1996 helped Nitro defeat Raw in head-to-head ratings for 83 consecutive weeks.
Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner in 1996. Time Warner merged with AOL in 2001. Turner’s executive influence diminished through both transitions. In March 2001, AOL Time Warner executive Jamie Kellner cancelled WCW’s programming on TBS and TNT. Vince McMahon’s WWF bought the WCW name, tape library, and a small portion of the talent contracts within weeks. Pro wrestling on TBS came to an end after 29 years.
Outside wrestling, Turner’s reach was vast. He owned the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks, using both as content for his cable channels. He won the America’s Cup as skipper of the yacht Courageous in 1977. He was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1991, the same year his network’s Gulf War coverage put CNN on the map as the world’s first global breaking-news outlet. He pledged $1 billion to the United Nations in 1997 and founded the United Nations Foundation. He became the largest private landowner in the United States at his peak, holding more than two million acres. He played a crucial role in reintroducing bison to the American west and ran the largest privately held bison herd in the world. He created the Captain Planet cartoon to teach children about the environment. He spent decades as a public advocate for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.
Turner was married three times. His first marriage was to Judy Nye in 1960, and his second was to Jane Smith in 1965. His third marriage, in 1991, was to actress Jane Fonda; the couple divorced in 2001. In 2018, just before his 80th birthday, Turner publicly disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, the same progressive brain disease that affected actor Robin Williams. In early 2025, he was hospitalized with a mild case of pneumonia and recovered at a rehabilitation facility.
Wrestling continues to air on Turner-built cable channels. AEW Dynamite has aired on TBS since the promotion’s 2019 launch, with AEW Collision and AEW Rampage on TNT.
Turner is survived by his five children, fourteen grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
