Please disable your Ad Blocker to better interact with this website.

Credit attribution: f11photo / Shutterstock.com

CNN’s ratings are so bad that last week, ratings for its entire line up didn’t equal the ratings of even one Fox News show.

The cable news station used to be one of the top ratings makers on cable TV. But today, decades old repeats beat them in the ratings.

CNN is falling apart, of course. It has fired some of its former stars, and re-jiggered its schedule hoping to bring the fire back. But, if the first week of Jan. is any indication, it ain’t a’workin so well.

As RedState’s Brad Slager wrote:

Things only continue to erode for CNN on the ratings front, with the reality of a very rare and eye-popping metric that emerged last Friday. When that day’s numbers came in, there was some surprise, but nothing too glaring – at first. First, Fox News held more than just the top 10 positions in the cable news ratings. Chris Hayes’ was the first non-Fox program to break the logjam at the top, coming in at #18 for MSNBC. CNN’s programs do not appear until Jake Tapper shows up, with the ironically and inaccurately named show “The Lead,” not appearing until #28 on the list.

To clarify, this is not the ranking in all of cable television ratings, this is only among the cable news programs. Now, let’s take a look at the very top of this list, and here is where things become especially embarrassing.

The top-rated program was 2022’s overall leader in cable news, “The Five.” That panel show logged 3,469,000 viewers, in line with its average figures. What is the standout statistic is this: That audience figure for the one-hour broadcast surpasses all of CNN’s primetime lineup! Beginning at 5 p.m., with “The Lead,” all the way through the 11pm hour with “CNN Tonight,” the combined audience of those shows did not total as much as Fox drew – for just the 5 p.m. hour.

That is the viewership of seven CNN programs failing to draw as much as the lone show for Fox. It is rather tough to even process that disparity between what are supposed to be broadcast rivals.

None of CNN’s shows managed to draw over 700,000 sets of eyes. From Wolf Blitzer, on at 6 p.m., through the 11:00 p.m. hour, the network drew fewer than three million. One-time superstar Anderson Cooper’s show has been expanded to 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m., covering the absence of Chris Cuomo. (Jake Tapper was given that extra hour ahead of the midterms, with a chance of being the permanent replacement, but he was quickly moved back to afternoons before the election even took place.) In his two-hour stint, Cooper barely draws one million viewers.

CNN is looking to continue making changes in the hopes of being seen as real news again, instead of extremist, sold-out, left-wing, partisans pretending to be journalists.

But they have hurt their reputation so bad that it may never be able to get it back.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston

Tags:

Warner Todd Huston

Warner Todd Huston has been writing editorials and news since 2001 but started his writing career penning articles about U.S. history back in the early 1990s. Huston has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and several local Chicago News programs to discuss the issues of the day. Additionally, he is a regular guest on radio programs from coast to coast. Huston has also been a Breitbart News contributor since 2009. Warner works out of the Chicago area, a place he calls a "target rich environment" for political news.

 

Join the conversation!

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.

CONTACT US

Need help, have a question, or a comment? Send us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Sending

Log in with your credentials

Forgot your details?