Ratings Rout: Last Place CNN Had Terrible 2017

The ratings results are in for the full year of 2017 and show that CNN not only came in last place, but that the left-wing network’s primetime viewership eroded by double digits — even as second place MSNBC soared, and ratings champ Fox News held tight.

Fox had an extraordinary year, its second in a row where its total viewers beat not just its left-wing competition in the form of MSNBC and CNN, but all of basic cable. Fox News was not only the number one basic cable channel; its average primetime viewership of 2.4 million was not far behind the Fox broadcast network’s average of 3.5 million.

By comparison, ABC, NBC, and CBS primetime earned 4.6 million, 6 million, and 6.3 million viewers, respectively.

But it is up against MSNBC and CNN, where Fox’s ongoing dominance is most striking. The reasons for this are obvious and will be explained below.

Total Average Viewers Throughout Day

• FNC: 1,501,000 (up eight percent)
• CNN: 783,000 (up four percent)
• MSNBC: 885,000 (up 47 percent)

Throughout the entire year, Fox attracted almost as many viewers throughout the day as MSNBC and CNN combined. Fox News also doubled CNN’s growth (eight percent, compared to just four percent).

An astonishing growth of 47 percent proves that MSNBC is gobbling up all President Trump-haters CNN tries so hard to attract and satisfy.

Average Demo (25-54 Years Old) Viewers Throughout Day

• FNC: 321,000 (up 15 percent)
• CNN: 257,000 (up 11 percent)
• MSNBC: 203,000 ages 25-54 (up 33 percent)

This is CNN’s only second place showing. The demo is really only important when it comes to advertising rates.

Average Primetime Viewers

• FNC: 2,422,000 (flat)
• CNN: 1,060,000 (down 15 percent)
• MSNBC: 1,624,000 (up 50 percent)

Again, but this time during the all-important primetime hours, Fox is able to attract nearly as many viewers as CNN and MSNBC combined. And in this case, CNN is in last place by a mile and losing viewers by double digits, a whopping 15 percent.

Average Demo (25-54 Years Old) Primetime Viewers

• FNC 488,000 A25-54 (up 1 percent)
• CNN: 370,000 A25-54 (down 13 percent)
• MSNBC 370,000 A25-54 (up 37 percent)

While Fox held steady (a remarkable feat considering the loss of Bill O’Reilly) and MSNBC capitalized on the anti-Trump resistance, CNN again lost viewers by double digits.

The reasoning behind CNN’s ongoing ratings humiliation is fairly obvious.

To begin with, MSNBC is not built on the foundation of a massive lie. To its credit, MSNBC advertises itself as a left-wing network. CNN, on the other hand, is built on a lie. CNN is even further to the left than MSNBC but still claims to be an objective news outlet. No one likes to be lied to, to be played for a fool.

Secondly, CNN is a firehose of fake news and, therefore, wholly unreliable. Imagine how disheartening it must be for Trump-haters to be told over and over again by CNN that this terrible thing is true about Trump and that terrible thing will be Trump’s undoing, only to discover later that it was yet another CNN hoax, another deliberate and calculated lie told by deliberate and calculating liars.

NBC News has its share of problems — including a climate of sexual harassment, abuse, and enabling — but no one believes anything CNN reports anymore — nor should they.

CNN chief Jeff Zucker has been a catastrophic failure. Under his partisan and unethical management, CNN has dropped from second place to last place and suffered permanent reputational damage that continues to this day.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.