CNN’s ratings are crashing as viewers flee the network in droves, according to The Hill media critic Joe Concha.
“The drop CNN is experiencing is profound. On Friday, not one program broke 900K total viewers. Prime averaged less than 800K overall,” Concha said Monday. “For comparison, the network averaged 2.74 million viewers in January, so we’re talking about more than two-thirds of the audience – gone.”
The drop CNN is experiencing is profound. On Friday, not one program broke 900K total viewers. Prime averaged less than 800K overall.
For comparison, the network averaged 2.74 million viewers in January, so we're talking about more than two-thirds of the audience – gone. https://t.co/a4f14QXStm
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) May 10, 2021
Concha retweeted a graph showing CNN’s viewership breakdown by hour for Friday afternoon and evening. As Concha pointed out, not one program broke 900,000 viewers. “Cuomo Prime Time” with host Chris Cuomo came closest at 881,000 people tuning in. Those numbers are far below CNN’s average for primetime viewership in January, when the network averaged 2.74 million.
CNN’s ratings during the primetime hours of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. were a fraction of what Fox News raked in. The right-leaning network did not dip below 1.6 million viewers and “Tucker Carlson Tonight” led with nearly 2.7 million.
In January, CNN experienced a ratings boom as former President Donald Trump prepared to leave office and President Joe Biden transitioned into the White House. CNN also hammered coverage of the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol while implicating Trump and other Republicans who had concerns over the way the 2020 election was conducted.
Viewers have fled CNN in the months since. In April, The Daily Wire reported:
Adding to weeks of reports of dwindling ratings, CNN has been “hemorrhaging viewers” since President Joe Biden took office on Inauguration Day. According to reports, CNN’s ratings are “down more than 50 percent in multiple categories” since January 20.
“The liberal network spent years attacking former President Donald Trump and the network thrived during his final days in office amid a brief post-election spike. CNN averaged 2.2 million viewers during the first three weeks of 2021, but it has averaged just one million viewers since Biden took office, a staggering decline of 54 percent,” reported Fox News.
The downward trend for CNN appeared to start soon after Trump left office, leaving the network without its primary GOP punching bag it had used for years to keep its audience engaged and boost its numbers. With Trump banned from most social media and all major platforms except for appearances on right-wing media outlets, the network has also lost out reporting on Trump’s now-censored stream of comments and attacks.
In April, the guerilla outlet Project Veritas released video of a sting operation against a CNN producer in which the network employee said that CNN uses its coverage to aid Democrats and hurt Republicans. As The Daily Wire reported:
The videos feature CNN Technical Director Charlie Chester speaking to an undercover Project Veritas journalist. The first batch of videos, released on Monday, featured Chester saying that the network worked to get President Donald Trump out of office, that they create “propaganda” and that they plan to use “fear” to advance their climate agenda.
Chester said that the network is aggressively covering allegations made against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) “to keep hurting him” because he was a “problem” for the Democrat Party and that it would be “great” for Democrats if he was removed from Congress.