Anderson Cooper’s Ratings Are Lower Than Aaron Brown’s Were

Photo of Noel Sheppard.
By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive)
May 5, 2006 - 00:10 ET

In reality, the headline says it all, doesn’t it? I mean, there’s not much more to say…but I’ll try.

Remember when Aaron Brown was fired from his anchor position at CNN last November? As reported by NewsBusters, CNN/USA’s president Jon Klein announced in a memo: “We have made some programming decisions which will impact our prime time schedule as well as our colleague Aaron Brown. Aaron will be leaving CNN and is very much looking forward to some well-deserved time off with his family.”

At the time, the New York Daily News had said that the shakeup – giving Anderson Cooper two hours from 10PM to midnight – was designed to improve CNN’s ratings versus Fox News. Well, according to a New York Post article Thursday, the gamble failed: “Cooper was sucker-punched with his April ratings that had his prime-time show down about 36 percent with younger viewers he's supposed to attract. Aaron Brown, whom Cooper ousted, was actually doing better this time last year.”

Yeah, but at least he made the cover of Vanity Fair.