CNN has lost about a million nightly viewers on average since President Donald Trump left the White House, and the liberal network is drawing nearly 50% fewer viewers in the key 24-54 age group, according to a new report.
“CNN averaged 2.5 million primetime viewers from Nov. 4, the day following the presidential election, through Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. But viewers fled the liberal network once President Biden took office, and CNN has averaged only 1.6 million primetime viewers from Jan. 21 through March 15,” Fox reported.
“CNN’s viewership during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET dropped 36% since Biden took office after it spiked following Election Day. CNN’s primetime viewership decline was even sharper among the key demographic of adults age 25-to-54, plummeting 47% during the same period.”
From Dec. 28 to Jan. 20, CNN averaged 2.2 million total day viewers, in part due to viewers tuning in for coverage of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. But the network has since averaged just 1.1 million viewers — a 48% drop.
Daytime viewership among the coveted 24-54 age group has dropped 44% from an average of 483,000 to just 272,000, according to the outlet.
Earlier this month, the CEO of CNN’s parent company said the COVID-19 pandemic has been “really good for ratings,” adding that wall-to-wall coverage won’t be ending anytime soon.
“It turns out the pandemic is a pretty big part of the news cycle and that’s not going away anytime soon,” WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said. “It turns out it’s really good for ratings.”
Kilar’s comments drew scorn on social media. The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Flint compared the declaration to one made by former media mogul Les Moonves during the 2016 election, in which he said Trump’s campaign for president “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”
“Careful. That’s awful close to Moonves line that Trump may be bad for U.S. but he’s good for CBS,” Flint wrote on Twitter.
That drew a response from Kilar.
“I agree Joe. I would like nothing more than for this pandemic to be well behind us. I mean that with every fiber in my body. I wish I could go back and be more thoughtful about my communication,” the CEO wrote.
The pandemic was also good for Biden, according to a new book titled, “Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency,” by Jonathan Allen, a senior political analyst for NBC News, and Amie Parnes, a senior correspondent with The Hill.
The book says Biden did almost everything wrong during his campaign, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was able to “hide his biggest weakness, which is himself.”
Biden spent much of the campaign in his basement in Wilmington, Delaware, holding far fewer events than Trump. One Biden aide told the authors that the strategy was tantamount to putting “your dumb uncle in the basement.”
And top Biden adviser Anita Dunn said that “Covid was the best thing that happened to him.”