'Stick A Fork In It, It's Done': CNN Records Its Worst Ratings In 9 Years
CNN continues to struggle under the new direction of Chris Licht after it was revealed the news network recorded its worst ratings in nine years last week, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a surprising development to come less than one year after Licht took over as CEO and chairman of CNN following Jeff Zucker’s unceremonious departure, the once-celebrated news network is still struggling to attract new viewers despite a series of sudden shakeups to its programs’ lineups.
According to Nielsen, CNN averaged only 444,000 viewers for the week of January 16 through January 22 – a low the network hasn’t seen since May 2014.
Even more surprising is the fact the network only garnered 93,000 viewers in the all-important age 25-54 advertising demographic.
Meanwhile, Fox News garnered a whopping 1.4 million viewers for the week of January 16 through January 22 while MSNBC maintained a modest 943,000 total viewers.
CNN This Morning – Licht’s newly rebooted morning show hosted by Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins – also suffered its lowest ratings since the program launched three months ago on November 1, 2022.
While CNN This Morning attracted only 331,000 viewers last week, its competitor Fox & Friends at Fox News garnered almost one million viewers and Morning Joe at MSNBC drew 760,000 viewers.
“Chris Licht was brought in as a messiah but all he has delivered is a benign brand of banal new coverage — the kind you can get anywhere,” one television insider who spoke to RadarOnline.com said following CNN’s lowest ratings in nine years.
“At this stage, you have to wonder whether the halcyon days are long gone for an institution that was once considered the worldwide leader in news,” the source added. “Stick a fork in it, it’s done.”
Other insiders revealed CNN staffers “seem to be growing frustrated” with Licht and the direction he is taking the news network – particularly regarding his involvement with CNN This Morning and its failure to find success three months after being launched.
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“The show can’t decide strategically what exactly it is, so it’s trying to be everything which can create whiplash for a viewer when segments seem off-brand in tonality,” one insider shared.
“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,” they added.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Licht is well aware that CNN is struggling – especially when compared to Fox News and MSNBC.
In an effort to shake up CNN This Morning, Licht abruptly reassigned the program’s executive producer, Eric Hall, to CNN Tonight hosted by Laura Coates.
Licht has also announced an upcoming “revamped daytime slate” in an effort to create a “fresh approach” to the network’s daytime programming via two new programs.
John Berman, Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner are set to co-host a block from 9 AM to 12 PM EST, while Brianna Keilar, Boris Sanchez and Jim Sciutto are set to co-host the subsequent 1 PM to 4 PM EST daytime block.
But despite Licht’s continual efforts to salvage CNN, insiders are skeptical that additional shakeups will save the network.
“Upcoming programming changes are likely to make matters worse,” one insider said.