White smoke emerged from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel chimney on Thursday afternoon—the signal that that a new Pope had been elected.
Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago will become Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pontiff.
Breaking: The new pope is revealed as Robert Prevost of the US, the first American pontiff in history. He’ll be known as Pope Leo XIV.
Live updates https://t.co/lh0DebwnVq pic.twitter.com/dqKOeV62lL
— CNN International PR (@cnnipr) May 8, 2025
The various news outlets have provided continuous coverage of the papal Conclave since it started on Wednesday. The election process produced two periods of black smoke—indicating that no winner had emerged—with Prevost being selected on the third round vote.
Pope Leo succeeded Pope Francis, who passed away on Easter Monday, after serving as head of the Catholic Church for over eight years. The news networks provided extensive coverage Francis’ funeral, which took place on Saturday, April 26, 2025.
Here is how the various networks covered the Conclave and the election of Pope Leo XIV. (All times Eastern)
ABC News
ABC World News Tonight’s David Muir has been anchoring live from the Vatican since Wednesday, joined by anchor Linsey Davis, chief international correspondent James Longman, senior national correspondent Terry Moran, foreign correspondent Maggie Rulli, reporters Ines de La Cuetara and Patrick Revell, WABC-TV’s Joe Torres, WLS-TV’s Liz Nagy, and contributors Father Jim Martin, Father John Wauck, and Helen Alvaré.
CBS News
Norah O’Donnell, Tony Dokoupil, Maurice DuBois, Seth Doane, and Chris Livesay have been offering live reports from Rome. Additional insights have been provided by Vatican analyst Delia Gallagher, Father Anthony Figueiredo, and John Allen, editor of Crux. The network broke in with a special report at 12:07:53 when white smoke was seen at the Sistine Chapel.
CNN
Erin Burnett has been co-anchoring live coverage from Rome, joined by CNN Vatican Correspondent Christopher Lamb. CNN Senior International correspondent Ben Wedeman and senior national correspondent David Culver have been reporting live from the crowds gathered at St. Peter’s Square. CNN en Español’s Jose Levy, Rafael Romo, and journalist Barbie Nadeau are also in Rome reporting across the network’s platforms.
