Bianna Vitalievna Golodryga is an American journalist who is currently serving as a senior global affairs analyst at CNN. She was previously the news and finance anchor at Yahoo! News. She was also previously co-anchor of the weekend edition of ABC's Good Morning America and a co-host of CBS This Morning.
Golodryga had planned for a career in the financial services industry after she graduated from college. She became a licensed trader and got a few jobs at financial companies. After a sharp drop in the market, however, she decided to pursue journalism. She frequently watched CNBC and was a fan of Maria Bartiromo's show, so she called the network to ask about any opportunities. She was told there were none currently but, undeterred, she decided to move to New York City and keep trying. Golodryga persisted and was offered a job at CNBC, where she worked for six years as a producer. She became an on-air correspondent after being asked to fill in one day. In 2004, Golodryga was named one of the top journalists under the age of 30. She was a correspondent for ABC between 2007 and 2010, and was named co-anchor of the weekend edition of Good Morning America in May 2010, following the departure of former co-anchor Kate Snow, who went to work for NBC. In April 2013, Golodryga was the first person to interview Anzor Tsarnaev, the father of Boston Marathon bombersTamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, which she called "the most emotional moment" of her career. At first, she assisted her colleagues with the proper pronunciation of the name, but then was tasked with calling Anzor in Chechnya. He had very few details to offer but called her back the next day, trying to find more information about what was happening and whether or not Dzhokhar, who had been taken into custody severely injured, was still alive. She served as weekend co-anchor of Good Morning America until August 4, 2014, when she left it to join the business and finance news department of Yahoo! News. She was a guest host on Way Too Early and was a regular contributor to Morning Joe on MSNBC. In 2017 she was a guest co-anchor of the CBS Morning News. She joined CBS on a permanent basis as a correspondent in September 2017 and simultaneously joined CNN as a contributor. In December 2016, Golodryga confronted then-Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from California, over his defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the time, Rohrabacher was considered a candidate to be appointed Secretary of State by then president-elect Donald Trump and was criticizing China for its record on human rights. Golodryga then asked about Putin, who has been consistently praised by Trump. Rohrabacher answered, "Oh, baloney. Where do you come from? How can you say that?" to which Golodryga replied, "I come from the former Soviet Union—that's where I came from. I came here as a political refugee. That's where I came from." Rohrabacher appeared flustered and accused Golodryga of being biased before he compared Putin to Mikhail Gorbachev. Golodryga is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has contributed to the HuffPost, most recently credited as a News and Finance Anchor at Yahoo!. In 2015, Golodryga, whose husband was a former Bill Clinton staff member then working for the Obama White House, was selected by Hillary Clinton to conduct Clinton's first interview as a presidential candidate. However, Clinton expressed her choice as "Bianna", which was misinterpreted by Clinton's staff as "Brianna" and an interview was scheduled with CNN's Brianna Keilar, who conducted a tough interview. Golodryga responded, "It happens all the time that my name gets butchered. I never thought it would impede me from participating in what would be one of the biggest stories of my life." On October 3, 2018, it was announced on CBS This Morning that she would be joining the team as a co-host. On April 3, 2019, CBS News announced that she has chosen to leave the network. Later that year CNN announced that Golodryga had accepted a full-time role at the network as a senior global affairs analyst.
