As Mark Thompson prepares to take over the ailing network, CNN faces new challenges after posting “snake full of buckshot” ratings in a key viewership category last weekend.
CNN garnered its lowest weekend ratings ever in the highly coveted 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen figures released on Tuesday.
I think the only people who tune in are there to watch the hosts’ meltdowns right on the set.
The network, which debuted in 1980 and bills itself as “The Most Trusted Name In News,” drew only 55,000 viewers for its weekend programming, which included Sunday political shows “State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash” and “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”
The troubled network’s Sunday primetime lineup of “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper” and “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” got 43,000 viewers. There are YouTube channels that do better.
WATCH:
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELCNN’s ratings are officially the lowest since 1991 when data on television became publicly available. Before that, the data was on paper and not digitized.
The network’s overall viewership, though, was not much better.
CNN had 345,000 total viewers, trailing Fox News’ 683,000 and MSNBC’s 424,000.
MSNBC only gets viewers because they gave up on lying to their audience by claiming they are serious journalists, and there are enough leftist whackjobs out there to build an audience.
Fox kicked ass for the crucial demographic, attracting 75,000 viewers to MSNBC’s 47,000.
“CNN is a ratings embarrassment,” according to one industry insider.
“At least with Thompson, they will have a direction,” the insider said.
I wouldn’t count on it. I think Zucker took the network so far over the top with outrageous programming that modeled Trash Trump 24/7/365 that there is no way they can redeem themselves. Sure, they got rid of the worst of the trash, even though Dana Bash is still there, but they now have the reputation that they are no longer a news outlet but a network of leftist activists who claim to be journalists and they can’t really pull it off.
Thompson, the former CEO of the New York Times Company, was appointed as CNN’s new chairman and CEO by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery following Chris Licht’s dismal tenure at the network. Licht got rid of the trash, but he couldn’t get the job done to revive the network from the graveyard. His job was to steer the network in the direction of providing centrist coverage, but nobody bought it.
Last year, Licht was fired after The Atlantic published a damning biography of him, characterizing him as a paranoid manager obsessed with his departed predecessor, Jeff Zucker.
His makeover featured the disastrous revamp of the network’s morning show, which brought in Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins.
However, Lemon was let go in April following a series of gaffes, including claiming that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was “not in her prime.”
Collins was moved to host a weekday primetime show, but that again did not work out.
Thompson will now take over as CNN president on October 9. It’s like the heart of the network doesn’t know that the brain has stopped functioning.
CNN hosts laughed and joked about the finding of cocaine in the White House for further perspective on how CNN has fallen well below the ranks of a respected network.
The CNN hosts laughed off the finding of cocaine at the White House, claiming that no one was harmed. The problem for the network is that it has such a bad reputation that everyone with a triple-digit IQ knows that coverage would have been the exact opposite if it were the Trump White House.
CNN did not question law enforcement officials or inquire whether someone should be prosecuted. Instead, they made it appear to be one big joke.
I feel bad for the people who work behind the scenes at CNN. They may not want to put CNN on their resumes. Either way, I will send a mess of flowers to the network’s funeral when it finally dies.
This ratings plunge is just additional proof of how deep the network has sunk.
