Nolte: Dying CNN Lost Almost 30% of Primetime Audience

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

During the week of March 18, the far-left CNN lost almost 30 percent of an audience that is already minuscule.

In the arenas of credibility and viewership, CNN is a dying brand. Over the last week, the news has been especially bad for the far-left outlet.

On the credibility front, CNN chief Jeff Zucker tried to excuse his network’s two-year deliberate deception about Trump colluding with the Russians by admitting on Tuesday that no one at CNN does investigative work.

Like we didn’t already know that.

“We are not investigators,” he told the far-left New York Times. “We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did.”

All Zucker did there was to confirm what we already knew: CNN acts as stenographers for the establishment, most especially the intelligence community, all of whom share CNN’s left-wing agenda for the country.  The facts are that so-and-so told us this and so-and-so told us that, is not journalism. Journalism requires investigation and the risk of uncovering a truth that might be inconvenient to your own personal beliefs and still reporting that truth.

For years CNN had fooled itself into believing journalism is the act of sitting around in a swanky studio or swanky corner office or an even swankier restaurant with “sources” groomed to tell them what they want to hear. And now, in this post-Mueller Report world (and yes, now live in a whole new political world), CNN has managed to become an even bigger laughingstock than it was last week — and when you look at the ratings, things were already pretty dire for CNN last week.

For the week of March 18, meaning prior to the release of the Mueller Report exonerating Trump from the Russia Collusion Hoax, CNN lost a jaw-dropping 24 percent of its total day viewers and 27 percent of its primetime viewers, when compared to this same week last year.

In the 25-54 age demo, which sets advertiser rates, CNN lost an astonishing 37 percent of total day viewers and 38 percent primetime viewers.

For comparison purposes, during this same week, Fox News increased its total day and primetime viewership by +8 and +2 percent, respectively.

MSNBC, CNN’s competition for left-wing viewers, only lost 9 percent of its total day viewers and 15 percent of primetime viewers. In the 25-54 demo, MSNBC also took a huge loss in total day and primetime; 33 percent and 32 percent, respectively.

This ratings report says Fox News “lost traction vs. last year among adults 25-54,” but doesn’t give the numbers.

Here are the raw numbers for the week of March 18:

Total Viewers (Total Day):

Fox News: 1.392 million

MSNBC: 1.029 million

CNN LOL: 622,000

Total Viewers (Primetime)

Fox News: 2.473 million

MSNBC : 1.721 million

CNN LOL: 889,000

So how is CNN doing in the post-Mueller world?

Well, there is not yet a whole lot of data available, just a couple of days worth, but the early returns bring the word “catastrophic” to mind.

When the Mueller Report broke Friday night, CNN’s primetime coverage could not even break a million viewers.

“Fox News finished No. 1 when it came to extended special coverage from 5 – 11 p.m. ET with 2.5 million in total viewers and 446,000 in the 25-54 demo,” TVNewser reports, “while CNN averaged 963,000 total viewers and MSNBC averaged 2 million total viewers.”

Let me break that down for you…

Fox News: 2.5 million

MSNBC: 2 million

CNN LOL: 963,000

And this was on one of the biggest news nights of the last two years.

Impossibly, things got even worse Monday, March 26:

Total Viewers (Total Day):

Fox News: 2.16 million

MSNBC: 1.112 million

CNN LOL: 590,000

Total Viewers (Primetime)

Fox News: 3.75 million

MSNBC: 1.956 million

CNN LOL: 846,000

On Monday, during primetime, four of CNN’s hours failed to break 700,000 total viewers: Jake Tapper (683,000), Wolf Blitzer (637,000 & 622,000), Erin Burnett (685,000).

MSNBC might see a ratings dip as it maneuvers in the post-Mueller world, but CNN was already in trouble, already in far-last place, and those wondering how CNN’s ratings could possibly get any worse are about to find out.

 

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

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