I am delighted to report that CNN’s average viewership between Feb. 7-13 fell to 444,000, a seven-year low for the network that calls itself “The Most Trusted Name in News.”
For comparison, Fox News Channel averaged 1.5 million total day viewers, making it the most-watched cable network last week. USA finished in second place, followed by MSNBC, HGTV and Hallmark, according to a Fox News report.
The once mighty CNN ended the week in eighth place, a stunning fall from grace.
The drop was most conspicuous in the critically important primetime category, 8-11 p.m. ET. Fox averaged 2.4 million viewers vs. 491,000 for CNN. Fox was only too happy to point out that translates to a 385 percent advantage over the scandal-plagued network.
The top five most-watched cable news programs last week were all Fox broadcasts. Number one was “Tucker Carlson Tonight” with an average of 3.5 million viewers, followed by “The Five,” “Jesse Watters Primetime,” “Hannity” and “Special Report with Bret Baier,” the report said.
In fact, 81 of the top 100 cable shows were from Fox.
CNN’s top show was “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” which drew an average of 663,000 viewers. But the following programs all attracted a greater number of viewers: History’s “Proof is Out There,” TLC’s “I am Shauna Rae,” Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible,” Investigation Discovery’s “Chaos in Court,” History’s “Ancient Aliens” and Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County.”
In the morning lineup, “Fox & Friends” earned the top spot averaging 1.4 million viewers. This compares to CNN’s “New Day” with 363,000 and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with 763,000.
Rachel Maddow, who is MSNBC’s highest rated host despite spending three years lying to viewers about former President Donald Trump’s collusion with the Kremlin, announced late last month she would be taking a brief hiatus from her show.
“The Rachel Maddow Show” will continue in her absence. Ali Velshi, who so famously stood before a burning building in Minneapolis during the George Floyd riots and told viewers it was a ‘mostly peaceful protest,’ sat in for Maddow last week. According to Fox, the show averaged 1.5 million viewers, a 26 percent drop from the previous week.
What would account for numbers like these? Credibility.
It’s simple really. As yesterday’s “conspiracy theories” quickly become “today’s news,” Americans are wising up.
I received a reader email recently from a retired reporter. Recalling his early days on the beat, he said a deputy chief of staff once offered him some wise advice that echoed throughout his lengthy career.
The words were, ‘Hold on to your credibility, it’s all you’ve got.’
CNN abandoned their journalistic integrity a long time ago. And that is precisely what’s killing them.
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