According to the latest numbers, CNN is in dire trouble.
The struggling cable news network had a particularly terrible week between Jan. 16-22, scoring embarrassingly low ratings that even set records, but not the kind of records a network wants.
The Wrap reported that Nielsen ratings clocked 444,000 viewers in CNN’s primetime lineup during that week. Even worse, it landed only 93,000 viewers in the coveted 25-54 demographic. Total day numbers came in at 417,000 viewers and only 80,000 in the 25-54 demo.
It was noted that it was the first time since May 2014 that CNN could not crack the 450,000 viewer threshold. Big yikes.
The Wrap also cited an inside source who revealed that CNN’s future looks extremely dim.
“Upcoming programming changes likely to make matters worse,” the insider reportedly said. That means the network’s latest CEO, Chris Licht, isn’t leading the comeback that many thought he would early on, with all of the programming changes made at the network in recent months.
And it’s not as if people are turning away from cable news programming. That’s easily proven by looking at Fox News, which continues to go scorched earth on every other cable news network, hauling in massive numbers in every single category, including the 25-54 demographic.
Fox News crushed the ratings in the same time period once again. The powerhouse network captured an impressive 2 million primetime viewers and 256,000 in the 25-54 demo.
If that happened only occasionally, one might be able to argue that CNN is simply having an off week here and there. The issue is that CNN continues to be demolished in the ratings race week after week. Even its rival left-leaning network, MSNBC, manages to nearly double CNN’s numbers.
It’s almost as if people have grown sick and tired of CNN’s divisive narrative pushing or something. Imagine that?
CNN has either lost or fired most of its former top-tier talent, and one of the few remaining A-listers for the network, Don Lemon, doesn’t seem to be able to capture the viewers that CNN’s brass had hoped for when they moved him to the morning lineup to helm “CNN This Morning.”
In the same Jan. 16-22 time period, Lemon’s morning show was humiliated in the ratings, especially compared to rival morning program “Fox & Friends.” Lemon’s morning program only drew 331,000 viewers, while “Fox & Friends” mustered nearly 1 million viewers.
Morning or night, Americans clearly aren’t interested in hearing the toxic narratives constantly pushed by Lemon and CNN in general.
Lemon and CNN brass also have another controversy brewing. It was reported recently by celebrity gossip site Radar Online that Lemon reportedly, according to one source, called co-hosts Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow “backup dancers.” They were reportedly not thrilled with the demeaning terminology.
“Don went into this thinking of himself as Beyoncé and his co-hosts as his backup dancers,” the source reportedly said.
Anonymous sources trouble:
"Don went into this thinking of himself as Beyoncé and his co-hosts as his backup dancers," claimed the insider…"That attitude did not fly — especially with Kaitlan. She won't play second fiddle to Don."
via @radar_online https://t.co/QWLNfXksjd— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) January 27, 2023
Between sinking ratings and what appears to be growing turmoil behind the curtains, it feels like CNN might be on its last leg before it either crashes and burns or is scooped up by another entity.
Story cited here.
