CNN recorded its lowest ratings week since 2014, according to The Wrap.
Attributing the news network’s ratings to the Nielsen service, The Wrap said CNN averaged just 444,000 viewers in primetime, 93,000 in the key age 25-54 news demographic for the week of Jan.16-22, and it averaged 417,000 in viewers and 80,000 in the important demographic for the total day.
The Wrap noted it marks the first time since May 2014 that the news network failed to reach 450,000 viewers.
Again citing Nielsen numbers, The Wrap said the new CNN show, “CNN This Morning,” also recorded its lowest week since it started three months ago. It averaged just 331,000 viewers.
CNN’s CEO Chris Licht had personally selected Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins to host the show. But The Wrap reported the three so far have not seen the show’s audience grow.
“The show can’t decide strategically what exactly it is, so it’s trying to be everything which can create whiplash for a viewer when segments seem off-brand in tonality,” one insider said. “The audience for morning news on network TV is different than the cable news audience and since we’re not gaining new viewers we definitely need to retain our legacy ones”
CNN will soon be starting a new daytime slate that hopes to take a “fresh approach” to its daytime programming through two new programs, The Wrap said.
In November, CNN’s own media critic Oliver Darcy had tweeted that layoffs were underway at CNN under Licht, with a large focus on reducing paid contributors as a part of a “recalibrated reporting strategy.”
Darcy had shared the all-staff memo from Licht, saying employees would get the ax Dec. 1 in the middle of the holiday season.
Licht’s memo said it’s hard to say goodbye to “many,” calling it a “gut punch” for “all of us.”
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