Nolte: Doomed CNN’s Primetime Ratings Hit 33-Year Low

A security guard walks behind shattered glass at the CNN building at the CNN Center in the
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson
John Nolte

“CNN suffered its worst ratings among primetime viewers in the most coveted demographic by advertisers” since 1991, reports the New York Post.

Glorious.

“The [disgraced] cable channel … drew just 83,000 viewers aged 25 to 54 during the week of May 13-19 from 8 to 11 p.m. — its lowest-rated week since 1991, according to Nielsen.”

Glorious!

“Fox News garnered more than twice the audience in the key demo, with 186,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. Left-leaning MSNBC was a distant second with 111,000, the data showed.”

GLORIOUS.

As far as total viewers during this same time period, CNNLOL averaged only 494,000 viewers. Meanwhile, MSNBC drew an average of 1.1 million, while Fox News drew two million.

Think about this…

We are in the heat of a consequential presidential election. One of those presidential candidates is spending his days in a criminal trial. Israel is at war. Russia and Ukraine are at war. That’s as sexy as news cycles get — presidential politics and war. But CNN is drawing fewer than 500,000 total viewers and way fewer than 100,000 demo viewers.

Before we get to my favorite part, allow me to address this… Some of you might be looking at these numbers and thinking, No one wants to watch a left-wing propaganda outlet that spreads conspiracy theories and political violence. But…

Plenty of people watch MSNBC.

The problem with CNN is not only this…

…because MSNBC is no different. MSNBC spreads the same hoaxes. Hey, there’s a reason why you never see Rachel Maddow and Jake Tapper in the same room.

Believe me, there are enough leftists eager to be told they are right about everything to sustain CNN. Credibility is not the only problem. The problem is…

CNN has hired the most unappealing group of anchors in TV history. If you switch MSNBC anchors over to CNN and CNN anchors over to MSNBC, CNN will win a million viewers while MSNBC sinks into the abyss.

  • Jake “Smug Election Meddler” Tapper?
  • Wolf “I Lost on Jeopardy” Blitzer?
  • Erin “Shark Eyes” Burnett?
  • Anderson “Tea Bag” Cooper?
  • Kaitlan “Nurse Ratched” Collins?

These are cold, dull, sanctimonious, unappealing, humorless, narcissistic liars. No one wants to spend an hour with them. You have to work pretty hard to hire that many losers.

Here’s my favorite part of the story because it backs up everything I’ve been predicting for 15 years, and I like it when I’m right…

Thoroughly disgraced CNN chief Mark “Thompson better get his act together before he completely destroys CNN,” a top news producer told the New York Post. “It seems like he’s thrown in the towel regarding cable.”

It seems like he’s thrown in the towel regarding cable.

What this means is that CNN can no longer sustain itself without the left-wing affirmative action of cable/satellite TV, where CNN makes a dollar or so every month off of every sucker that subscribes to an overpriced cable TV package that includes CNN.

If CNN is part of your cable package, you are subsidizing CNN (and MTV, the Disney Grooming Channel, Comedy Central, MSNBC, etc.) whether or not you watch.

RELATED: CNN’s Ian Coverage Joins Weather Dramatization HALL OF SHAME

The rigged cable game is what has sustained CNN for decades because without those unearned cable dollars, CNN is not popular enough to survive. The Biggest Joke In News could never-ever-ever survive on merit, i.e., dollars earned from advertising revenues based on viewership.

As more people cancel their cable TV and move to streaming, CNN (and a number of other basement-rated channels) lose all that precious revenue. CNN and the others will soon reach a point where too few people subscribe to cable to sustain their production costs — especially with next to no money coming from advertisers.

And we already know CNN cannot survive on merit. Remember this?

CNN has already lost its credibility, lost its viewership, and now it’s a joke that’s about to lose its cable network.

Glorious.

John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook. 

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