Well, CNN, it was good while it lasted.
The formerly straight, turned progressive, turned sort of straight-again cable news outlet is suffering at the hands of a far lesser-known conservative news outlet available only by paid or upgraded subscriptions following a Donald Trump Town Hall on May 10.
DON'T MISS: CNN Begs For Patience As Ratings Plummet
CNN, which recently bid adieu to former morning anchor Don Lemon, saw a brief bump in interest following rival Fox News' breakup with primetime host Tucker Carlson.
Carlson, whose namesake "Tucker Carlson Tonight," held the 8 p.m. ET hour for seven years, had been a ratings stalwart, reliably capturing the coveted key demo and averaging over 3 million views nightly in 2022, compared to CNN's 8 p.m. ET equivalent, "AC360," which averaged over 800,000 viewers nightly over the same time period.
Following his departure from Fox News in late April 2023, CNN had begun to claw its way back up the ratings. On the first Monday of Carlson's absence, "Fox News Tonight," still took the top slot, bringing in a considerably smaller 2.6 million viewers. CNN, for comparison, brought in 728,000 on the same night. But behavior patterns began to shift in the days following Carlson's exit.
Fox, which has been the most watched cable news channel in the country, slipped for the first time to its left-leaning counterpart MSNBC in the 8 p.m. slot. Blood in the water signaled to CNN that the primetime news hour may in fact be attainable.
And thus it held its Trump Town Hall during that prime slot, which managed to bring in a sizable traffic boost at around 3.3 million -- comparable to an average Carlson night.
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CNN Slips to Far Smaller Political News Channel
But that viewership market has since corrected. The Trump Town Hall was not the success CNN hoped it would have been; the audience mocked CNN's questioning and routinely applauded Trump's commentary on topics about Ukraine, election fraud, and his sexual assault case. CNN's own Oliver Darcy was reportedly internally admonished for his pessimistic coverage of the evening's events.
CNN's problems are more than just internal, though. The recent ratings batch shows the cable news outlet slipping to Newsmax, a far smaller conservative channel and favorite of former President Trump's.
CNN clocked in at 335,000 average viewers during its three hour primetime bloc on May 12, firmly behind Fox, MSNBC, and Newsmax.
Here's the full breakdown:
- Fox News: 1.44 million average viewers
- MSNBC: 1.08 million average viewers
- Newsmax: 357,000 average viewers
- CNN: 335,000 average viewers
After 8 p.m. ET on Friday night, no CNN show registered above 300,000 views.
CNN Tries to Restore its Reputation
CNN is under new management with Chris Licht at the helm following Jeff Zucker's ouster in February 2022. On his first day at the job, Licht sent an internal memo to employees asking everyone to pitch in and right the ship toward truth and trust:
Sadly too many people have lost trust in the news media. I think we can be a beacon in regaining that trust by being an organization that exemplifies the best characteristics in journalism: fearlessly speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo, questioning ‘group-think’ and educating viewers and readers with straightforward facts and insightful commentary, while always being respectful of differing viewpoints. First and foremost, we should, and we will be advocates for truth.
CNN has taken a sharper turn toward breaking news and attempted to muzzle its more outspoken and partisan pundits, including Brian Stelter, who had been outspoken about covid protocols, conspiracy theorists, and correcting "lies and smears polluting the airways." More recently, CNN parted ways with Don Lemon following his comments about women in their 50s being "past their prime."
CNN reported a 61% drop in average ratings during the month of March 2023 -- the steepest of the three main cable news channels.
