CNN has seen better days. The former cable news powerhouse has seen ratings drop at a rate not seen in nearly a decade, and despite being under new management, is still struggling to attract viewers.
Current Nielsen ratings reveal that CNN brought in just 444,000 average primetime viewers between January 16 and January 22. Just 93,000 of those were in the 25-54 news demographic. This is the first time since May 2014 that the network has not passed the 450,000 viewer threshold, reports The Wrap.
In that same period, Fox News drew in 1.5 million viewers with 176,000 being in the 25-54 demo. MSNBC brought in 629,000 total viewers with 69,000 in the demographic. In primetime, Fox News eclipsed the 2 million mark.
CNN, now known for being a corporate mouthpiece that is willing to spread DNC propaganda like the Russiagate hoax, has recently gone through a purge and remodeling that saw Don Lemon demoted, starchy broadcaster Bryan Stelter fired, and has also had to split from other broadcasters like Chris Cuomo, who was terminated in December 2021.
Lemon, along with his morning show co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, are "growing frustrated" with the network."
"The show can’t decide strategically what exactly it is, so it’s trying to be everything that can create whiplash for a viewer when segments seem off-brand in tonality," said one insider. "The audience for morning news on network TV is different than the cable news audience and since we’re not gaining new viewers we definitely need to retain our legacy ones."
The broadcaster also recently had to announce that it would be axing its streaming service CNN+ due to a lack of viewership.
