This page contains an index of most named characters in Basic Cable – including minor characters for reference.
All character drawings provided by BorisPeci
Nina Constantinos
Nina, age 26, is a professional television journalist who has been newly hired by America’s leading cable news network, WWN. Previously, Nina was employed as a local reporter in her home town of Appleton, Wisconsin, where she became known for uncovering a major campaign finance scandal on the city council. Nina is an avid fan of Star Trek and her family has owned and operated Connie’s Diner, an Appleton institution, for four generations.
Vinya Jain
Vinya Jain, 27, is a culture correspondent, blogger, and YouTuber with WWN Lifestyle. Prior to her recent relocation to Washington, she wrote on music for the Los Angeles Times and amassed a massive network of sources in the recording industry. She has a keen investigative mind and a “sixth sense” for subtle shifts in the pop culture. Before turning to journalism, Vinya was a leading DJ in L.A.’s live music scene, specializing in SlamBoard, live vocals, and period-accurate music of the 2010s. In addition DJing, Vinya is a talented pianist, vocalist, and dancer. She has a strong interest in the early history of YouTube, and remains a hobbyist music producer in online underground forums.
Madison Rylander
Madison Rylander, 38, is WWN’s ace legal correspondent and a five-time winner of CableNet magazine’s Sexiest Name in News. Raised in a military family, Madison began her journalistic career at the Cleveland Plain-Dealer newspaper, where she drew attention for her in depth coverage of city council and strong performances as a subject matter expert on local television. Moving to WWN at the young age of 26, Madison established herself as a hard-nosed political reporter, gaining national fame for uncovering a corruption scandal that led to the resignation of prominent Senator Pamela Sparks. Moving into legal reporting, Madison became a staple of major court cases with a talent for gaining inside information. In its 2037 profile, CableNet said that Madison had “comprehensively transcended the boundary between journalism and celebrity, becoming one of America’s most recognizable faces without losing an ounce of her investigative prowess.”
Priscilla Davis
Priscilla Davis is the editor-in-chief, CEO, and evening news anchor at WWN. Priscilla started as a print reporter for Politico before joining startup web-channel WWN as political editor. Her hard-hitting political coverage helped position WWN for a move onto cable TV, enabling it to survive the streaming-video crash of the 2020s and establish itself as one of America’s “big three” cable news networks. She was named editor-in-chief in 2028 at the age of 40. In the ten years since, she has been universally acknowledged as the leading journalist of her generation, and in 2036 Time Magazine called her “the single most watched, trusted, and influential journalist since Walter Cronkite.”
Sinéad Szerbiak
A 2036 graduate of Dartmouth College, 23 year-old Sinéad Szerbiak is executive assistant to Priscilla Davis. Sinéad is the daughter of renowned gender studies scholar Dr. Tiff Szerbiak, who currently holds the Frances McDormand Distinguished Chair in Women’s and Gender Studies at Yale University.
Emma Poissonier
Emma Poissonier, 29, is in her fourth year as a correspondent for the WWN FirstLight morning show and considered one of the network’s rising stars. Born and raised in Delcambre, Louisiana, Emma found success in high school cheerleading and went on to become the Vice-Captain of the cheerleading squad at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. After beginning her journalistic career at the Abbeville Meridional newspaper, Emma later worked as a television reporter in Richmond, Virginia before being recruited by WWN.
Dan Dragovich
Dan Dragovich, 50, is the host of the evening news magazine On Site with Dan Dragovich. One of his generation’s most decorated war correspondents, Dan has been with WWN since its inception. Starting as a foreign correspondent in his late twenties, Dan has developed a reputation as an “old-school, just the facts” journalist. This approach, combined with his thrill-seeking personality, has made him a staple for breaking news stories ranging from hurricanes to international crises.
Aiden Healy
Aiden Healy, 31, is the senior cameraman for On Site with Dan Dragovich, where he has worked for six years. Originally from Cimmarron County, Oklahoma, Healy began his journalistic career as a freelance photojournalist in the Oklahoma City market. Aiden has shared one Emmy with Dan Dragovich and Ty Criancas for his camera work covering the 2035 civil war in Jamaica.
Tobaya “Toby” Carsten
Tobaya “Toby” Carsten was one of WWN’s original on-air correspondents and a prominent on-air personality from the early 2010s until the late 2020s. In her mid-twenties, Carsten was recruited away from MSNBC by WWN founding editor Jim Brinkman. By the mid 2020s, Carsten was seen as the network’s leading on-air talent and a likely successor to Brinkman. She was also the leading member of WWN’s “Three Musketeers,” along with Priscilla Davis and Dan Dragovich. This group was integral in shaping WWN’s identity in its first decade. Carsten was known for her effortless on-air personality, her dogged coverage of the 2020s internet data crisis, and and her bold fashion choices. Specifically, her preference for metallic silver lipstick was seen as groundbreaking and set the tone for African-American professional fashion in the late 2020s. Carsten left journalism in 2028 and currently owns a public relations firm in San Jose, California.
S. Flannery MacClennan
S. Flannery MacClennan, 47, is the Maddow Distinguished Fellow for Transnational Extremism at the Samantha Power Center for Foreign Policy. One of America’s best-selling non-fiction authors, MacClennan is best known for her landmark 2022 book Jihad Brides, which profiled women who left Western countries to join radical Islamist movements in Syria. Her other works include The White Widow: The Rise of World’s First Female Jihadist Leader, New Jewels: Women in the Jamaican Civil War, and Unification Blues: Fear and Loathing in the New Korea. MacClennan is also a regular WWN contributor, known for her colorful guest appearances on the late-night program NightCap.
Diana Constantinos
Diana Constantinos, 30, is the older sister of Nina Constantinos. She holds a Bachelors in Criminal Justice from the University of Alabama and currently works as teaching English as a Second Language in China. Largely estranged from her immediate family.
Alejandra “Ally” Talamantez.
Originally from West Texas, Ally Talamantez has a varied career in journalism. As local news reporter for Appleton’s WAPL in the late 2020s, Her presence at the scene of a traumatic event helped propel a teenage Nina Constantinos toward a career in journalism. She later went on to work as a weekend anchor in McAllen, Texas, and then as a technology correspondent for WWN Business Network.
Cardinal Fletcher Adams
His Eminence Fletcher Adams, 62, is a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and the Archbishop of Wellington in New Zealand. Raised an atheist, Adams converted to Catholicism while on a basketball scholarship to Gonzaga University in the United States. A member of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, Adams began his priestly career in Tijuana, Mexico before returning to New Zealand to launch after-school programs for at-risk youth. His efforts were successful enough to warrant his appointments as Auxiliary Bishop of Auckland and then Archbishop of Wellington. He was created a cardinal in 2034 and voted in the papal conclaves of 2034 and 2035. He is a personal contact of Nina Constantinos, whom he met in the run-up to the conclave of 2038.
Contantine “C.J.” Constantinos III
C.J. Constantinos, 28, is the older brother of Nina Constantinos. Currently the general manager and co-owner of Connie’s Diner in Appleton, Wisconsin. He is a graduate of the Univerisity of Wisconsin-Green Bay and lives in South Appleton with his wife Kayleigh and children Helena (6) and Constantine IV “Fourby” (4).
Kayleigh Constantinos
Kayleigh Contantinos, 28, is the wife of C.J. Constantinos and the sister-in-law of Nina Constantinos. She was born Kayleigh Terlecki and raised by an alcoholic single mother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She became heavily involved in skater culture and was a competitive skateboarder during high-school and college. She met C.J. Constantinos during her time at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and relocated to Appleton to help him run the family business. She is currently a full-time mother to Helena and Fourby, and a part-time administrative and payroll specialist at Connie’s Diner.
Constantine “Gus” Constantinos II
Gus Constantinos is the third generation owner-operator of Connie’s Diner in Appleton, Wisconsin. He is the father of Diana, C.J., and Nina Constantinos.
Ty Criancas
Originally from Fall River, Massachusetts, Tiago “Ty” Criancas, 46, is the Producer and Technical Director for On Site with Dan Dragovich. He is the direct supervisor of Aiden Healy.
NaQuan Rodgers
NaQuan Rodgers, 45, WWN’s head of Production and lead Producer for WWN Evening News with Priscilla Davis. He has a twenty-year working relationship with Davis and is widely acknowledged as the top news producer in America, if not the world.
Da “Lenny” Len
Da Len, known as “Lenny” to her fans, is a member of to smash-hit retro girl-group “The Brilltones.” Of Cambodian-American ancestry, Len is originally from Lowell, Massachusetts and formed the Brilltones in her mid-twenties along with lead singer Jennifer “Jenny” Mangraviti and fellow backing vocalist Erin “Penny” MacDougal. While less active in the media than the other ‘Tones, Len is credited with introducing the group to the early-1960s “Brill Building Sound” that would come to define their style. The Brilltones have been named Artist of the Year at the last three American Music Awards, are the best-selling music artists of the 2030s, and lent their name to the decade’s dominant “Brill” youth culture. Len is an anonymous source for Vinya Jain’s reporting on the music industry.
Tony Cantara
Tony Cantara, 55, is the Managing Editor of WWN Lifestyle, a culture focused subsidiary of WWN. Cantara was previously the Associate Managing editor at Vogue before being recruited in 2035 to lead the launch of WWN Lifestyle. With 30 years in fashion journalism experience, Cantara was seen by Priscilla Davis as a strong leader who could take WWN’s cultural reporting from non-existent to industry leading. While WWN Lifestyle does not yet compete with more established cultural outlets, Cantara has drawn praise in the industry for scaling up quickly and recruiting top talent away from more established outlets. Most recently, he surprised the industry by luring fast-rising pop music reporter Vinya Jain away from the Los Angeles Times.
Elijah “Rat” Conlin
Rat Conlin, 24, is a “venue management assistant” for Greased Lightning Events (GLE), a company which owns several of Washington’s leading music venues. Rat is best known to customers as the Friday/Saturday night bartender at Zuko’s Gargage, GLE’s flagship venue and one of the nation’s leading venues for live Brill Music. During the day, Rat works in event planning for GLE’s venues in both the mainstream Brill and underground Glow scenes. He is an anonymous source for Vinya Jain, serving as her primary connection to the D.C. area’s local music scene.
Jim Brinkman
Jim Brinkman was the founder and first Editor-in-Chief of WWN, developing the network from a small online streaming platform to a major player in the cable news industry. Brinkman spent most of his career with Bloomberg news before seeing a niche for an online streaming platform that was Washington based, politically astute, and non-ideological. Known for his affable personality, Brinkman had a keen eye for talent and personally recruited talents such as Priscilla Davis, Dan Dragovich, Toby Carsten, and Madison Rylander. His crowning achievement was the development of WWN Plaza in Washington’s NoMa neighborhood. This corporate headquarters included DC’s tallest building, WWN Tower, but was centered on the historic Washington Coliseum – a former hockey arena built in 1941. “The arena” as it became known to staff, continues to serve as WWN’s main newsroom. Brinkman died of prostate cancer in 2028 at the age of 65, was succeeded by one of his proteges, Priscilla Davis .
Oakley Trent
Oakley Trent, 38, is a long-time makeup artist at WWN and personal friend of Madison Rylander.