CNN Hits 20-Year Weekday Primetime Low

CNN Ratings Drop 2012The 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.

Comments (174)

  • I get all my news online from CNN and Al Jazeera English. Whenever a big story breaks and I go to CNN or Fox News channel, they’re not covering it, it’s usually just some political talking heads type of show. Let the news take center stage, the “personalities” mean nothing to me.

    Comment by Matt — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 10:52am PDT  Reply to this post
    • Written by Ted Turner? Or a CNN employee?

      Comment by Archy Cary — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 11:05am PDT  Reply to this post
  • CNN tries to disguise itself as a centric network but they are skewed to the far left and most people are more centric right, I tuned them out years ago, they are cheerleaders for radicals who do not represent the majority of our society.

    Maybe they will fold, we can only hope so.

    Comment by Joe Kumpf — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 10:53am PDT  Reply to this post
    • My guess would be that CNN is reformatted and/or merged with someone else. They have a lot of potential.

      MSNBC is probably a lost cause. I suspect there’s a lot of overlap in their operations and of course NBC News itself has been a disaster since Russert died. They need a complete reorg.

      Comment by rootvg — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 11:30am PDT  Reply to this post
    • I do so love conservatives.

      “FOX IS THE HIGHEST RATED NETWORK!”
      Yes, thanks to the legions of 55+ year-old, retired red-staters who find Fixed Noise perfectly matches their “Complain About The Government All Day”

      “CNN IS LIBERALLY BIASED!”
      Compared to the ultra-conservative, contraceptive-banning, the-president-is-a-forriner-whos-gonna-take-our-guns, base that makes up the Republican party now, I would say yes. You got me there. Now go wash your sheets.

      “FOX TELLS THE TRUTH!”
      Did we EVER find those WMD??? :)

      Comment by catrina — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 5:10pm PDT  Reply to this post
  • Is there really a wonder why???

    ABC World News and NBC’s Nightly News refused to report the fact that 43 Catholic dioceses and organizations filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Obama administration.

    CBS Evening News gave this historic news event 19 seconds of air time.

    CNN used their short airtime to counter the legitimacy of the lawsuit and failed to do so with their live interview.

    Viewers are tuning in for NEWS. Not biased commentaries or slanted positioned news.

    Comment by Makeem Stop — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 10:55am PDT  Reply to this post
  • I am not surprised. It is your typical liberal/left leaning main stream medium. When I heard Randi Kaye describe George Zimmerman last week-end as a ‘white’ hispanic (a new term coined by the liberal media to exacerbate the racial tensions the MSM has been so keen to inflame) I realized CNN is hopeless as a news organization. It is a propaganda machine – spewing bad propaganda that people don’t want to hear. CNN richly deserves its pathetic ratings. Fortunately you can get real news elsewhere. Bye bye CNN.

    Comment by Robert C Taylor — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 10:56am PDT  Reply to this post
  • CNN’s more interesting programming is when it’s world-news-focused. They excel in that area and will devote hour long stories and reporting on world news and how it ties into our every day lives in the states (how it impacts us and our politics).

    Their others programs are really lame. Ditch all that goofy talk-back crap, vote on story-of-the-day, holograms, or whatever gimmicky thing you’re doing to try to be relevant.

    But you’re own by a corporation, so we all know that they will dictate what type of news stories CNN will drive each day. Cable news has become a joke.

    Oh and get rid of Wolf Blitzer. Seriously he’s an embarrassment. He’s the Huell Howser of cable news.

    Comment by my two cents — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 10:56am PDT  Reply to this post
    • I guess you never traveled to, say, Europe and hear all of CNN Int’l's slams against American.

      Comment by Archy Cary — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 11:03am PDT  Reply to this post
    • Except that Huell Howser has a goofy charm about him, and you can actually learn something from his programs.

      Comment by Gee wiz — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 11:25am PDT  Reply to this post
    • The international reporting was always CNN’s specialty and if they survive that will surely be part or possibly all of the reason why.

      Comment by rootvg — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 11:37am PDT  Reply to this post
    • I haven’t watched CNN in YEARS. Is Blitzer STILL on there?? Seriously?

      Comment by DavidT — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 3:51pm PDT  Reply to this post
  • Nobody watches the liberal media anymore…tired of hearing their rhetoric!

    Comment by Dino — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 10:57am PDT  Reply to this post
    • you’re spot on, Dino.

      if ABC, NBC and CBS weren’t on ‘free tv’, they wouldn’t have an audience either.

      Comment by matt — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 11:03am PDT  Reply to this post
  • CNN should try being fair and balanced. Duh.

    Comment by Roy Flores — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 10:57am PDT  Reply to this post
  • It isn’t just that horrible Piers. CNN is just not interesting to watch. No heat, no insight, no noting. They’re just kind of there.
    Their talent is bad, morning, noon and night. Their shows are dull and forced.
    Look at how they botched the Facebook IPO. Just a disaster all day long. The stand out failure was the Sara Jessica Parker look-a-like who bumbled and fumbled her way through live shots.
    Everyone seemed ill at ease.
    CNN has just become bad TV. Too bad. So much potential.

    Comment by former (isn't everyone) viewer — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 10:58am PDT  Reply to this post
  • If CNN are not careful they will lose both their viewers

    Comment by Makka — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 10:59am PDT  Reply to this post
  • Roland Martin, Soledad O’Brien, Piers Morgan…. just some of CNN’s bright stars.

    why is CNN going down the tubes again?

    Comment by matt — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 11:00am PDT  Reply to this post

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