OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Another change is coming to CNN as the network attempts to decide how to fix its ratings. Anchor Jake Tapper was promoted to a primetime timeslot held that was held by Chris Cuomo, but now, after ratings not matching his competitors, Tapper is being moved from his new show, The Daily Wire reported.
“As part of a special lineup, Jake agreed to anchor the 9p hour through the midterm elections,” a spokesperson for CNN said. “At the completion of that schedule, he’ll be returning to his award-winning program The Lead. We will announce post-election plans for that time slot in the coming days.”
The Daily Beast reported:
The network had originally announced Tapper would helm the 9 p.m. slot through the election, but after an extensive promo campaign and high-profile guests (including President Joe Biden), there was speculation Tapper could ultimately become a permanent host of the time slot left vacant by Chris Cuomo, who was fired by CNN last year. Still, the anchor was not able to trump his time-slot competitors in ratings, often falling far behind competitors Alex Wagner Tonight and Hannity (on MSNBC and Fox News, respectively) in total viewers and alternating with the MSNBC host for second and third place in the key demographic of viewers ages 25 to 54.
More cuts are coming to CNN and the staff at the cable news giant is frightened. The new CEO, Chris Licht, spoke to CNBC about the changes to the network and the fact that his review of the company ended last week, CNBC reported.
Licht’s review is part of a larger effort spearheaded by Zaslav, who has told division heads throughout the company to rethink their units and find ways to cut costs. More than 1,000 people will be laid off by Warner Bros. Discovery before the end of the year, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private and ongoing. Warner Bros. Discovery has about 40,000 employees.
Licht doesn’t have a specific order to cut a certain amount of jobs or save a specific percentage of spending. But he’s planning to cut parts of CNN that he have become bloated over time, said the people. A CNN spokesperson declined to comment.
“When [Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav] called and offered me the job, he told me what he was looking for out of CNN,” he said. “And I said, ‘That’s exactly the kind of network I would like to see.’ There’s no daylight between his vision for this network and my vision for this network. The only reason why I took this job is because it was him in charge. I thought, I can deliver this for him.”
“I love the control room, and I love the feeling of sending a text and seeing it show up on screen 10 minutes later, but there’s so much happening that we’ll be paralyzed if everyone is waiting to hear from me,” he said. “That’s just not how I operate.”
But some employees are concerned by his hands-off style and are frightened that he is evaluating them. There is also the issue of the collapse of CNN+, which former CEO Jeff Zucker thought was the future of the company, which led to hundreds of people being hired, then laid off.
He said he wants opinions from Republicans and Democrats but he does not want disinformation.
“The analogy I love to use is some people like rain, some people don’t like rain. We should give space to that. But we will not have someone who comes on and says it’s not raining,” he said.
But he does believe that the CNN brand was harmed by the hyper-partisan reporting during former President Donald trump’s presidency.
“The brand is the most trusted brand in the world when it comes to journalism, right up there with the BBC,” he said. “I think what happened a little bit here in the past was it’s easy to take the quick sugar high of ratings and outrage. So, I’m trying to do no harm to a great brand.”
He also said he was not concerned with anchor Jake Tapper being defeated by Fox News and MSNBC in his timeslot to start.
Tapper managed to score an interview with President Joe Biden, but his ratings tanked anyway, according to Nielsen figures. In fact, Tapper’s program failed to attract a million viewers.
The New York Post reported:
“CNN Tonight” drew just 854,000 viewers during the 9 p.m. hour on Tuesday — less than a third of the more than 2.6 million people who tuned in to ratings leader Sean Hannity on Fox News, according to Nielsen figures.
Tapper’s total viewership was only slightly more than half of that drawn by Alex Wagner, whose MSNBC show generated 1.586 million viewers on Tuesday, according to Nielsen.
Warner Bros. Discovery-owned CNN and Tapper can take solace in the fact that his show finished in second place in the advertiser-coveted demographic of viewers between the ages of 25 and 54.
Tapper drew 211,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo, beating out Wagner’s 144,000 viewers. Hannity reigned in that category as well, garnering 323,000 viewers, Nielsen figures show.
