CNN Hits 20-Year Weekday Primetime Low
The only ratings news CNN is getting lately is bad news. Last week, the cable news network had its lowest-rated weekday primetime in 20 years in terms of total viewers. From May 14-18, CNN averaged 395,000 viewers in primetime with Anderson Cooper’s AC360 and Piers Morgan Tonight. The full seven days of last week was the third-lowest-rated full week in primetime since March 1997. Additionally, last Monday to Friday was also the network’s fourth-lowest-rated weekday primetime week among adults 25-54. CNN scored just 111,000 viewers in the demo. CNN’s previous worst weekly weekday primetime among adults 25-54 was May 15-21, 2000, when the network recorded 91,000 viewers among adults 25-54.
This ratings news comes less than a week after the network hit its lowest primetime among adults 25-54 in 15 years on May 15 with Pier Morgan Tonight. That followed a terrible April where CNN had its lowest-rated month in a decade.
How low will they go until Piers is no mo’?
I’m betting at the end of this presidential tour de force. Could be all far left outlets (NBC, etc.)will be history too.
That’d be nice…but the problem is that “journalists” today have become an envious, jealous lot. They’re not smart enough to DO so they write about the real producers – then seek to bring them down because they (the so called journalists) want to be equal. Sort of like those who can, do and those who can’t, teach. Sad but true.
My question is this: whom does the public dislike more—Andy Cooper or Piers Morgan. Being an Independent, I watch, off and on, both shows and find them interesting however I see one problem with Piers. Unlike Larry King’s demeanor of staying totally objective, it’s obvious that Piers is a liberal and on serveral occasions I’ve seen him take sides. One I clearly remember is his support of the late Trayvon Martin. He was positive the kid was shot in cold blood.Now we can see how wrong was his presumption of clear cut murder.
Does anyone find these ratings a surprise?
The CNN content is abysmal.
Boring, just plain boring….they don’t have people with the personalities to keep us engaged. Blah, blah, blah
agreed. and therein lies the problem. i used to keep cnn on in the background all day as i worked, but ALL of their anchors have either become ranting lunatics telling stories devoid of valuable content or do what i can only describe as OMG anchoring: “OMG!! check out this video of a cat beating a child in a locked hot car outside a wal-mart!OMG!!!!!”
They hitting the target market. Lay-a-bouts on the dole too lazy to change the channel
What kind of idiot sponsors does CNN have? Non-profits?
CNN fired all their best reportes & anchors like Linda stouffer plus many others and for who knows what kept the worse like S. O’brine what is cnn thinking? S O’bring worse in th business an th big wigs wonder why others are eatign their lunch?
Maybe if they stop letting everyone “spin” and calling it objective journalism and instead tell the viewers what is true and what is a lie, then I’d watch.
But then they wouldn’t get all that PAC money, would they? 24-hour news channels are like infomercials now.
Yes absolutely true! What ever happened to non-biased reporting??? If I want to hear about someone’s opinion I’ll call my Mother-in-law up…..I tune in to the news to find out what’s happening without someone’s commentary.
I loved CNN when it first came on the air decades ago. It had a 1/2 hour format and I’d flip to it periodlcally throughout the day. All I needed was 1/2 hour and I’d get all the news, just news, not idle political speculation about what may happen, not minute-by-minute coverage of some court case or the search for a lost child.
Now, what’s the point of even checking CNN? After noon, it’s not news.
I don’t know where to get national news any longer. I certainly don’t watch CNN.
some of the highest ratings cnn got in that time slot this year year was when they held the republician debates. you would think that just maybe the powers to be would think hummm. maybe if we become more middle of the road and be honest with our reporting maybe more people will watch.
There is a large segment of the viewing public that wants news, hard news. No talking head idiots whether they are on the right or left. They want to see coverage of things that matter in our lives domestically and internationally and not some big mouth telling them what they should think or hear about the latest fabricated “outrage” and war on something.
I’ve ditched all cable “news” and tend to now look overseas to actually see what is going on. The international media does a better job of covering our domestic news than the awful media in the United States.
Tip to CNN, ditch the horrible news personalities that you keep coming up with year after year and cover news. Cover the corruption and stop pretending that every story has to be represented by both political spectrums because sometimes, it just isn’t the case. You might be surprised that you get better results than the ratings disaster that you’ve become.
The foreshadowing of CNN’s failure was when Wolf Blizter became their main “star.”
Enough with debate TV.
I agree!!
You are so right about just wanting the news!
We don’t need the “bubble-headed blonde’ or the big name/personality news reporter.
We just want the news! Come on. Bring it on. We can take it. Then, we can decide how to dice, rice, or slice it.
When the journalists become the stars, I don’ want to watch that channel anymore.
I agree.I am an Independent and I can’t stand to watch cnn,fox,msnbc,abc or nbc.They all push their agenda and I bet I don’t need to tell anyone which network slants the news to the left or right.Most of us know.
Instead I enjoy BBC.or Smithsonian channel about other fossils of the past.
Ditto.
A/C is too redundant…..hour after hour.
Piers is irritating to me when he interrupts his guests constantly.
Erin is progressing nicely after her sophomoric start. Find myself watching more of here lately.
Time for Wolfman to go.
I find myself watching RT and other foreign sources for our local news. So sad.
Wolf is the answer to America’s sleeping problems. He’s so boring and monotone.
Along with many other changes, CNN needs to revamp it’s image with an updated logo.
Darn, I hope CNN does not go under. I was looking forward to Black in America Part 37.
that is very funny
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks a lot for making me spit my drink all over my key board. Beautiful comment!!!
I love this comment. Hilarious!
Funny you should be making a joke about programming that appears once a quarter, and is one of the few things CNN does that has some value, not a lot, but at least it’s not a DAILY panel with Will Cain, or Erin Barnett.
Now, THAT was a funny comment!
Absolutely Brilliant Comment – hysterical !
The commercial template is establish, Fox News Sells. Why no one copies is amazing. These guys let their political views get in the way of their wallet.
Someone might. Roger Ailes has begun to steer Fox to the center and I think he’s been told off the record that one of his competitors is either going down or undergoing a format change.
It might be that CNN is going to be acquired by one of the legacy networks. They would be a decent fit to become part of CBS and there were talks between those two organizations to merge operations several years ago.
Something big is coming, probably after the election.
CNN says it gets only about 10% of its profits domestically. There is no incentive to change things no matter how low the ratings drop. See MSNBC for how politics trumps good sense.
I have often wondered why most of the news outlets chase the same far-left demographic; If they were run for profit and not ideology, you would think someone of CBS/ABC/NBC/MSNBC/CNN/PBS would notice they all pursue the 20% deranged leftie demographic, and that 80% of America is up for grabs. Murdoch told them what he was going to do at a meeting of broadcasters in ’81, and 30 years later they still haven’t caught on.
the left is more mainstream than the right. if you poll most of the major issues in this country, you will see that its the republicans that are out of the mainstream. fox news has a solid demographic. 90% of them are insane tea baggers huddled in their homes (bunkers), with their glenn beck survival gear and their stockpile of weapons. john stewart beats fox news, and all he does is make fun of fox news!!!!
This is a bunch of dog crap!
CNN is a bunch of crap.
They are obviously not giving the public what they want in journalism.
The public wants singing contests and fart jokes.
The reason I don’t go to CNN is because they don’t report on any of Obama’s fallacies. THAT is real news. THAT is what is happening today! THAT is what should be the most important issue to date. THAT is THE main news, in my opinion, that people and voters want to chime in about with their comments, but CNN refuses to say anything negative towards Obama.
It’s quite easy to see which side of the political spectrum the CNN execs are sitting – way far left.
The problem with that is a news outlet should be sitting right in the middle.
CNN is one of the most biased news outlets out there.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I stopped watching CNN as my main news station quite a number of years ago when I found Fox News. Every once and awhile, I check in with CNN only to see the same old slant on news that protects Obama by not saying anything about all of the failures and issues that truely matter to all of us in this country. I want to hear all sides of the issues but when a network claims to be unbiased and rarely reports anything negative, in particular all of the power grabbing over the past few years, then the network has no credibility. Comne on CNN, get your act together and report the news in a fair and even handed approach. You might be surprised at the results and just possibly gain some credibility.
Are you guys kidding? Fox News has zero credibility. They tell you exactly what you want to hear, which is why you like it. Don’t pretend it’s because they’re giving you the “truth”. Grow up.
Oh please Chet. Most of us watch Fox and still yell at the TV. Fox does NOT feed conservatives only what they want to hear. If you watched the channel you would know this.
Please. I’ve watched the other cable news networks. Nobody comes close to Fox. MSNBC has no opposing views it’s all just liberals jibber-jabbing and drueling over Obama. CNN couldn’t give you directions anywhere if they had to use the word ‘right’ to indicate a turn. I don’t care if you don’t like Fox – don’t watch it. But do us a favor, don’t tell people to grow up because you don’t like their source for news which, btw happens to be the most popular cable news network BY FAR. By your measure I suppose all of those watchers need to ‘grow up’ because they don’t watch your preferred news-slanting cable channel?
Chet, I’m pretty sure both Fox and MSNBC believe they are providing the “truth” . . . the problem is that truth requires perspective . . . Fox has zero credibility with you but much with those who see liberal bias in the other networks (NBC, etc.) . . . surely you can see this?
Chet’s just upset because we finally have a channel that gives ALL the news, and not just what Brian Williams, et cl wants us to know. It’m sure it must be completely maddening to know how highly informed conservatives are because of Fox.
Chet, I think it’s you that needs to grow up. You assume, incorrectly, that if I, or for that matter, anyone else watches Fox we just believe what is said is true. Here’s reality Chet. If something doesn’t sound right to me, I check other sources. More often then not, Fox is reporting factually. I am talking about news, not commentary. You know going in what to expect with commentary. The problem with CNN is they don’t even report a good bit of what is going on. They are quick to report the “good” Obama news but don’t even cover major negative news. If you don’t like Fox, that’s great…watch CNN or MSNBC. Certainly you will find your own truth there.
Actually I watch Fox News quite a bit as I too like to compare sources. And all of these channels get a lot of things wrong but as far as primetime programming – which is what the article was about – I think Fox’s evenings are much more skewed to dubious opinions passed off as fact. And given the high ratings I’m inclined to think most people watching agree with them. (CNN may be biased, but not Bill O’Reilly-level biased). Fox during the day is fine. I don’t think watching any of these news channels exclusively is a good idea.
You obviously do not watch Fox news and rely on the stereotypes that are presented by the liberal media. I you watched it, you would know that both sides are almost always presented. It is more conservative than liberal but is does show both sides. I like to hear a good debate. I do not want to just listen to a conservative, I want to hear both sides present their arguments and then I can decide who has made the best argument. The problem with the liberal press is they are so one sided, you will never know if they are twisting the facts, taking things out of context, or just plain lying. If both sides had an opportunity to debate, you would know. When I go to NBC, ABC, MSNBC, etc., because I listen to Fox News, I can see that they are not telling you the whole story, are twisting facts, or just lying. If that is the only source you have, you do not know that. All liberal should listen to Fox news or you will not even know what the news is.
Welllll, Chet. I’ve seen a number of national stories go down first hand. And guess what? FOX was far closer to what happened than the two competitors who call themselves “news” networks. And do you think that FOX viewers look ONLY to FOX for news? Nope. However, it’s evident that a lot of the left lives and dies by MSNBC. Now THAT’S stupidity in action.
That’s a pretty lame comment. Biased with nothing to support it. Just like CNN.
To say they have ZERO credibility is totally false. They are best at doing interesting stories the other media won’t touch.
You have no credibility, however, when you overstate your case, which you did.
YEP !
I wonder if CNN’s numbers count the airports that have the gate TV’s tuned to it, or the American Forces Network feed where they force feed you a news rotation that includes CNN? There may actually be NO ONE outside of airports and the military satellite feed watching CNN!
I was thinking the same thing
You forgot to count all the Doctor Offices accross this great country. Every Doctor’s Office I go into hass CNN on their TV so they don’t upset anybody.
You forgot hotels that often do not even have a choice to watch Fox. I asked my gym one time why they always tune the monitors to CNN. I pointed out that Fox news was vastly more popular than CNN. The man I asked said we won’t put that right wing trash on our screens. I bet he never watched Fox and was a liberal. I don’t go to that Gym any more and I call a hotel and make sure they have Fox before I will book a room.