CNN's Ratings Collapse - Part Two
... Now that CNN's chief Jeff Zucker has 'resigned,' is there a better chance Jay and Eric can get a weekly show?
Jason Cousineau and Eric Renderking Fisk | March 5th, 2022
Recorded on February 5th, 2022, Jason Cousineau and Eric Renderking Fisk discuss what happened to CNN and what the next network boss could do to turn that news organization around. Like... maybe cover real news? And a prediction about what Joe Rogen might do if he is actually removed from Spotify. Finally, reviving the conversation about Free Speach, and how much is too much freedom?
Show Resources and Links
The Fedora Chronicles: "CNN's Ratings Collapse - Part One ...And what's the worst that would happen if CNN put The Fedora Chronicles in Cuomo's old time slot with the same budget?" Jason Cousineau and Eric Renderking Fisk | February 5th, 2022
New York Post: "Scandal-ridden CNN sees ratings dive by 90% after 2021 coverage," By Alexandra Steigrad | January 12, 2022
Town Hall: "CNN’s Ratings Collapse: It Couldn’t Happen to Nicer People," by Derek Hunter | July 1st, 2021
To paraphrase the old saying, when your opponent is destroying himself…let him. There are few things I enjoy more than bad things happening to bad people, and the news about the collapse of CNN’s ratings falls nicely into that category. It couldn’t happen to nicer people. So let’s revel a little in the historic 70 percent ratings collapse of the “Cable ‘News’ Network.”
The primetime line-up of CNN is a joke. How can a network in literally every home with cable, which is almost all of them, draw fewer than a million viewers nightly? If you tried to be as unpopular as Anderson Cooper, Chris Cuomo, and Don Lemon you would have difficulty; you might have to set puppies on fire or call everyone fat and ugly, and even then you’d likely still be more popular than they are. And more honest.
CNN’s biggest problem is the people who are supposed to be the “faces of the network” are simultaneously the face of the Democrat Party and, unfortunately for them, they’re also wrong as often, if not more so, than the party itself. People can forgive being wrong, they can’t forgive being unrepentant about it.
Yahoo News: "CNN Ratings Plummet 80 Percent to Start 2022," by Isaac Schorr | January 14th, 2022
CNN averaged only 548,000 viewers during the week of January 3, a steep 80 percent decline from the 2.7 million it averaged over the same period in 2021.
Some of that decline can be attributed to the drama of January 6 last year, which helped the cable news network attract more viewers than on any other day in its history. This year, CNN used the anniversary of the Capitol riot to try to replicate that success, hosting a show live from the Capitol grounds.
Fox News and MSNBC both finished well ahead of CNN over the same time period, averaging 1,408,000 and 746,000 viewers, respectively.
CNN also trails Fox in the coveted 25-to-54 age demographic, averaging just 113,000 in that group to Fox’s 223,000, but did outpace MSNBC’s 88,000.
Over the last year, the talent at CNN has endured a number of scandals. Chris Cuomo, one of the network’s most promoted and well-known anchors, was let go in December after a year of controversy marred by allegations against him of sexual misconduct and his role in advising his brother — former New York governor Andrew Cuomo — when he faced similar allegations.
John Griffin, a senior producer who worked with Cuomo, was also fired after being accused of sexually abusing minors.
Daily Mail UK: "Tuning out! Viewership at scandal-plagued CNN plummets by as much as 90% from last year in both overall audience and in advertiser-coveted 25-to-54 demographic" by Natasha Anderson.
Scandal-scarred CNN has seen its viewership nosedive by a staggering 90 percent both overall and in the critical demographic coveted by advertisers in the first week of the new year as compared to last year.
The once-proud leader in cable news averaged just 548,000 viewers during the week of January 3, a precipitous drop from the nearly 2.7 million viewers for the same week in 2021, according to the most recent ratings.
Those numbers were supercharged by the the left-leaning network's coverage of the January 6 Capitol Riot, which resulted in CNN having its most-watched day since Ted Turner launched the news outlet in 1980.
However, on the one-year anniversary of the insurrection, viewers chose right-wing rival Fox as it topped ratings for coverage of the event.
CNN also saw an 86 percent decline in the much-desirable 25-to-54 demographic, with a paltry 113,000 tuned in last week, compared to the 822,000 CNN averaged a year ago.
The network, which was swallowed up by AT&T in its merger with WarnerMedia last year, has been plagued by high-profile scandals - most notably the firing of its top-rated prime time star Chris Cuomo after the anchor was found to be helping his sex-pest brother Andrew try to beat harassment allegations, which led to his resignation as New York's governor.
Daily Beast: "CNN Bottomed Out in 2021—Will Viewers Come Back? The network reigned supreme at the end of the Trump era, but has fallen back to Earth. What happened?" by Justin Baragona | December 23rd, 2021.
Less than a year later, CNN’s viewership has shrunk—the channel is buried in third place, behind Fox and MSNBC after a series of controversies and scandals that ostensibly struck a blow to the news network’s credibility.
In fact, just this past week, the network averaged a paltry 585,000 total viewers in primetime, placing CNN all the way back in 17th place among all basic cable. Worse yet, the channel’s 120,000 viewers in the key primetime demographic were only good enough for 31st place among cable stations.
In other words, the future isn’t all that bright for CNN heading into 2022—and it’s not clear if there’s anything it can do to pull itself from the morass.
