CNN is in a ratings freefall and every move they make backfires and sinks them deeper in the hole. Major shakeups will be soon if they can’t right the ship. February marked CNN’s lowest-rated month in a decade.
CNN had an average primetime audience of 122,000 viewers in the key demo, compared to Fox News Channel’s 299,000 and MSNBC’s 119,000.
Fox News dominated prime time with 2.262 million viewers followed by MSNBC with 1.165 million viewers. CNN had only 587,000 viewers. Fox News had 94 of the 100 most-watched shows in February which marked two consecutive years as the highest-rated network in cable news.
So CNN made some big changes to its primetime lineup that backfired according to media reports.
A CNN spokesperson ripped the reports saying: “We have been experimenting out in the open for all of 2.5 weeks.
“So despite being deemed ‘a failure’ by the Beast’s team of programming whizzes and the competitor who pitched this story, we’ll find the strength to power on.”
According to Yahoo:
Since implementing that formula late last month, however, CNN has yet to see viewers embrace the new direction. In fact, CNN’s primetime specials have attracted a smaller audience than the network’s regular programming in that same time slot this year.
Since the start of the year, CNN has averaged 679,000 total viewers in the 9 p.m. time slot whenever Anderson Cooper, whose nightly program airs at 8 p.m., has anchored the hour.
Prior to Cuomo’s move to primetime a few years ago, Anderson Cooper 360 was a two-hour news show. Additionally, 7 p.m.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett has averaged an overall audience of 567,000 when filling in during the primetime slot. Cooper also has averaged 159,000 viewers in the key advertising 25-54 demographic during his 9 p.m. broadcasts, while Burnett has pulled in 114,000 in the demo.
By comparison, the network’s special town-hall events that have aired in the 9 p.m. hour since late February have attracted only 429,000 total viewers and 101,000 in the key demographic.
And Don Lemon’s show saw another shakeup.
According to The New York Post
CNN tapped two veteran executive producers on Monday to oversee Don Lemon’s ratings-challenged and controversy-marred “CNN This Morning.”
Longtime CNN producer Lauren Mensch and Chris Russell, who recently was the executive producer for NewsNation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert,” will grab the reins from Eric Hall, according to the cable news network.
