The Scoop

Ratings Crash: CNN Falls Out Of Cable’s Top 5 Networks In Prime Time

By • June 7, 2021 1:47 pm

CNN has suffered a major blow to its cable standing recently when it fell out of the country’s top five networks in prime time — which critics said could be a result of its biased reporting, but something that the network downplayed as a mere result of “a news cycle that has cooled down.”

The left-leaning legacy media reportedly lost “nearly one out of every four of its total viewers” since last month.

For  May, the result showed that total daytime viewership fell by 22% in May compared to April, and even more (28%) among viewers aged 25-54, which is the most coveted viewer demographic.

Last month, the number of people watching prime time television declined for the first time in months, forcing CNN to fall out of the top five cable networks in prime time for the first time in months.

The viewership of all three major cable news networks have shrunk in the previous month, possibly due to casual viewers who turned in in April to watch coverage of the Derek Chauvin trial turned away in May, according to reports.

Fox News tops prime time 

As CNN dropped out of the top five networks on primetime, Fox News once again dominated cable news  and cable in general, claiming the top spot in basic cable.

Over the course of the day, Fox News Channel received an average of 1.19 million viewers, with 2.17 million tuning in during prime time. According to Nielsen ratings statistics, the 3% drop in both categories is also the least among cable news networks.

Fox News maintained an almost-monopoly of prime time programming, airing four of the top five cable news shows: “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (1), “Hannity” (2), “The Five” (3), and “The Ingraham Angle” (5). Meanwhile, MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” was once again included in the top five, checking in at number four.

Meanwhile, MSNBC came in second in total day (835,000) and prime time (just under 1.5 million) viewers, although it has lost 12% of overall viewers, 6% during prime time, and 22% of prime time viewers aged 25-54 since April.

CNN continued to fall behind, failing to reach one million viewers in prime time or overall viewing in May. In May, just 913,000 individuals watched prime time programs on the first 24-hour cable news network, with a total of 610,000 viewers.

Reports noted that the only positive news for CNN came in the form of its viewing audience: it scored second among the coveted 25-54 demographic for the eighth month in a row, topping MSNBC among younger viewers. 

“CNN continues to have the youngest audience in cable news in Total Day and prime time and reached the largest cumulative TV audience among both total viewers and adults 25-54 in May,” CNN said commenting on the ratings.

In its report, The Daily Wire wrote: “While CNN is still the fourth most-watched cable network overall — behind Fox News, MSNBC, and HGTV — its unique blend of commentary-posing-as-unbiased-journalism caused the network to crash to earth. Only the most Woke segment of society, the young, appear to be getting their news from the Atlanta-based network.”

The network’s popularity and reputation were clearly tarnished by a huge ethical issue involving Chris Cuomo, the anchor of CNN’s most-watched show, who admitted to privately advising his brother, New York Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo, on how to respond to many charges of sexual harassment against him. 

And while many of Cuomo’s coworkers were offended by this action, CNN President Jeffrey Zucker decided to let Cuomo go unpunished after he issued a public apology.

 

Some sectors also noted how the sharp drop in CNN ratings could explain the network’s increasing criticism of competing news networks, particularly those whose politics skew more conservative. 

Earlier, a CNN commentator went as far as calling on Fox News to “start deplatforming” some of the “nuts” in prime time — whose shows, coincidentally, have been beating CNN in the ratings ever since January (and for 19 years before that). 

CNN also branded Newsmax and One America News Network as “noxious garbage” last month.

Last May, the network also fired former Republican Senator Rick Santorum over his comments about American exceptionalism in what watchers say is the network’s move to “purge conservative voices” in its programs. Santorum said, however, that CNN fired him “due to cancel culture”. 

In its response to the dismal May ratings of the network, CNN said the decline was simply due to the news cycle having simply “cooled down significantly from a year ago.”

Among the criticism of CNN is its blatant push to downplay news that would negatively impact the administration of Democrat President Joe Biden and his VP, Kamala Harris. The left-leaning media also reportedly buried the exposé about Hunter Biden ahead of the 2020 elections. 

In 2018, veteran journalist Ted Koppel predicted that “CNN’s ratings would be in the toilet without Donald Trump” — a warning that has resurfaced recently as the network’s ratings continue to plummet without its main nemesis in office.

Koppel told a National Press Club gathering that former President Trump had been “very, very good” for the journalism industry.

“The ratings are up, it means you can’t do without Donald Trump. You would be lost without Donald Trump,” Koppel said then, as CNN’s own Brian Stelter retorted that it wasn’t the case.

Steeve Strange

Steeve is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Scoop.
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