When it rains, it pours. And when it comes to ratings at the Jeffrey Zucker-led clown show known as CNN, it’s a monsoon. The second quarter’s ratings came out on Tuesday and the immature, noxious, and repugnant network suffered its worst month in total viewers and the 25-54 demo since June 2019. And that's not to mention that primetime ratings have tumbled 71 percent in total viewers and 78 percent in the demo since January.
Meanwhile, the Fox News Channel continued to assert its dominance over the competition with its 78th consecutive quarter leading cable news and sixth straight win in all of cable, led in part due to the continued success of shows like The Five, Gutfeld!, and Tucker Carlson Tonight.
But for CNN, it’s more of the same and, for some reason, they’re okay with it.
In addition to the decrease in primetime, Nielsen Media Research also showed that CNN has hemorrhaged 69 percent of its total day viewership across all ages and an astounding 75 percent in the 25-54 bracket.
When comparing the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021, it’s still ugly with CNN down 45 percent in total viewers (654,000) and 52 percent in the demo (160,000). FNC and MSNBC also lost viewership (due in part to last year’s COVID lockdowns and mass rioting in cities), but were nowhere close to CNN.
And to continue beating the dead horse, CNN’s total viewership was down 49 percent (to 580,000) and 59 percent in the demo (133,000) when comparing June 2020 to June 2021.
Fox News had more details in a press release that also delved into their success in primetime (click “expand”):
Notably, CNN's viewership fell to new lows since the start of the year, notching its lowest-rated month in both categories in total day since July 2019, with 70 percent declines in both primetime and total day across the board as well as its lowest-rated primetime demo since August 2015. Of all news networks, CNN is down the most year to year, shedding more than half of its audience with both total day and primetime demo. Meanwhile, MSNBC lost over half its audience in all categories since January 2021 to date, as FNC remains the top-rated cable news network year-to-date in both total day and primetime total viewers.
At 8 PM/ET, Tucker Carlson Tonight completed the quarter as the top-rated program in its timeslot in all categories, averaging 2.9 million viewers and 487,000 in the demo, as well as 307,000 in the 18-49 category. Hannity at 9 PM/ET followed suit in both categories, averaging 2.7 million viewers for the quarter, 420,000 in the demo and 259,000 among adults 18-49, and surpassing MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show and CNN's Cuomo Prime Time in both categories. The Ingraham Angle at 10 PM/ET garnered 2.1 million viewers, 361,000 in the 25-54 demo and 220,000 in 18-49 for the quarter, edging out MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show in the 25-54 demo for the full quarter. Additionally, the network's primetime programs dominated several entertainment and sports programs on broadcast in total viewers during the second quarter, including NBC's 3rd Hour of TODAY and The Master's golf tournament airing on ESPN.
In the second quarter, the sixth iteration of CNN’s New Day continued to embarrass as co-host Brianna Keilar has failed to deliver as it marked its lowest-rated quarter since 2019 with only 484,000 total viewers and 116,000 in the demo.
Word to the wise: If you’re weekday show on one of the three major cable networks and you’re under a half million total viewers, you might suck.
But speaking of shows that don’t suck, Gutfeld! concluded its first quarter where it began with the Greg Gutfeld program besting not only its CNN and MSNBC competitors, but far-left, so-called comedy shows on Comedy Central and TBS.
Better yet, a Fox release said Gutfeld! scored wins over every CNN program and even broadcast network comedy shows (click “expand”):
Host Greg Gutfeld's new late night program Gutfeld! finished the quarter as the number one-rated show in cable news in total viewers at 11 PM/ET, surpassing every CNN program in total viewers as well as various broadcast and cable comedy shows. In Nielsen's Live+3 measurement, Gutfeld! delivered wins against ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC's The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in total viewers. The program averaged 1.5 million viewers and 296,000 with A25-54 during the second quarter, topping The Tonight Show in total viewers in the Live+SD measurement. The show crushed Comedy Central's The Daily Show, TBS' Conan and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee across the board in total viewers and the younger 25-54 demo in both Live+SD and Live+3. Additionally, for the month of June, Gutfeld! outpaced ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live for the first full month since launch.
And in one final twisting of the knife before we go, FNC’s The Five closed the second quarter as the third-most-watched show on cable news (2.6 million total viewers and 385,000 in the demo), editing out all CNN shows, MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, and even broadcast network shows like ABC’s This Week and The View and NBC’s Meet the Press.
Either way you slice it, CNN will never be able to pull together enough apples and bananas to explain away this debacle.
