OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
CNN, which rose to prominence during the 1991 Gulf War as the first and, at the time, only 24-7 cable news channel, has collapsed to a shell of itself in terms of viewers three decades later.
Though the network has been shedding viewers since former President Donald Trump left office, new ratings show that CNN is barely making an impact, averaging just “548,000 viewers during the week of January 3, a steep 80 percent decline from the 2.7 million it averaged over the same period in 2021,” National Review reported.
“Some of that decline can be attributed to the drama of January 6 last year, which helped the cable news network attract more viewers than on any other day in its history. This year, CNN used the anniversary of the Capitol riot to try to replicate that success, hosting a show live from the Capitol grounds,” the outlet continued.
By comparison, Fox News finished ahead in the prime time categories, again, and even MSNBC outpaced CNN during the same period.
Fox averaged around 1.4 million viewers while MSNBC registered roughly 746,000 viewers over the period.
CNN is also far behind in terms of attracting the highly sought-after 25-54 year old demographic, drawing just 113,000 compared to Fox’s 223,000 and MSNBC’s even more dismal 88,000.
“Over the last year, the talent at CNN has endured a number of scandals. Chris Cuomo, one of the network’s most promoted and well-known anchors, was let go in December after a year of controversy marred by allegations of sexual misconduct against himself and his role in advising his brother — former New York governor Andrew Cuomo — when he faced similar allegations,” National Review reported.
Last month, top podcaster Joe Rogan went off on CNN, calling the network’s ratings “dogs**t” and blasting hosts as “f**kin’ propagandists.”
After detailing the allegations against now-fired CNN host Chris Cuomo, who was not forthright with the amount of assistance he provided his embattled brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who resigned amid sexual harassment claims, Rogan blasted the network for having “highly polarizing editorial personalities like [Brian] Stelter and Don Lemon.”
Rogan then claimed that CNN is “realizing that their ratings are dogs**t.”
“I personally, maybe this is just my bias, I want the news. I want objective news,” he said.
“I want someone to tell me what are the facts of what’s going on? And what’s happening? I don’t want your ideological slant. I don’t want this left-wing propaganda network, which is what CNN has become,” he added.
“The way I look at CNN now is so different than the way I looked at CNN 15-20 years ago. I used to look at them as like, this is how I get the news. This is unbiased, professional news,” he noted further.
“They’re going to tell me what’s happening in Pakistan and what’s happening in, you know, Mogadishu. These are the real journalists that are telling you the news,” Rogan added.
“Now, I look at them, I’m like, you f***in propagandists, like, what are you, the right arm of Pfizer? Like what are you doing? You know? It’s just a, I think there’s a market for real news. And it’s really hard to find that now. It’s really hard, especially outside of independent sources,” he added.
The previous month, reports noted that CNN was considering major talent shake-ups as ratings continued to tank.
Zero Hedge noted:
…Discovery chief David Zaslav – who is widely expected to assume stewardship of CNN after its merger with WarnerMedia is complete – has kept his public comments on the failing news network close [to] the vest. When asked by Deadline what he thinks will happen with honcho Jeff Zucker, Zaslav said “Jeff’s a good friend and I like him a lot.”
But according to Jon Nicosia – former Mediaite and IJR managing editor (and former breaking news editor at the DC Examiner) – CNN is going to revert to a 100% news channel, and a “good number” of CNN’s “talent/staff” will be fired as part of a major shakeup.
