CNN Sees One of Its Lowest Ratings Ever as Massive Layoffs Loom

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Daily Beast

Updated Dec. 19 2024 1:56PM EST / Published Dec. 19 2024 12:39PM EST


CNN’s ratings woes reached a new low this year, plunging in in a key age group—all as the Warner Bros. Discovery network is set to lay off hundreds. The network managed to score second place between Fox News and MSNBC in a year-end average of the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic, averaging 92,000 total-day viewers, according to Nielsen data obtained by Mediaite.

While that beat MSNBC, which averaged 86,000 total-day viewers in the demo this year, it is still CNN’s lowest demo average ever—down 1 percent from last year’s previous low of 94,000. (All networks were up in primetime viewers this year, likely due to the election.) The blow comes as Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav reportedly seeks to cut hundreds from CNN’s payroll, coinciding with its planned digital-first strategy and its vanishing viewership. Just last month, MSNBC beat CNN on election night, once CNN’s crown jewel of programming, for the first time ever.

One CNN staffer told the Daily Beast that staff has been kept in the dark on any layoff news, and all they’re learning about what’s coming is from public reports. “Everyone’s just waiting,” they said. The source also noted the specter of a sale, particularly as Zaslav siloed CNN and other cable networks as part of a “Linear Global Networks” division in a company restructure last week.

The move has launched speculation that Zaslav could be open to selling off companies—and networks—should Donald Trump’s second presidency offer a better regulatory environment. A CNN journalist blamed the flailing ratings to the Ankler on a poor job covering Trump. “When we were aggressively covering Trump, we did well,” they told the publication. “When we are flaccid covering him, the ratings tank.”

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-sees-one-of-its-lowest-ratings-ever-as-massive-layoffs-loom/

[RockRaven]

1. Oh no!

Anyway...

[BumRushDaShow]

2. LOL

[Metaphorical]

3. Oh, I bet this comment went over well

"When we were aggressively covering Trump, we did well,” they told the publication. “When we are flaccid covering him, the ratings tank.”

In other words, when we were doing actual journalism and warning about the dangers that he posed, people paid attention, but when the corporate heads all decided to treat him with kid gloves, people recognized the BS.

I wonder if the journalist in question is still employed by them?

[turbinetree]

4. Hire progressive news casters problem solved.................

Like the entire Democracy Now team.............and fire the right wing boss and all of his lackeys..............just a a left wing thought..............

[Javaman]

5. oh nose...

[Dem2theMax]

6. Too bad.

That's what happens when you refuse to tell the truth, and you sell out your country/destroy democracy, in the process.

[Crowman2009]

7. Appealing to people who permanently wrote you off a long time ago as "liberal media" in favor of FAUX news is not...

...a winning strategy.

[Dem4life1234]

8. There is already Faux news for the dumbasses

There was no need for them to veer right.

It's all good, many of us on the Left prefer to get our news from social media sources such as MeidasTouch anyway. Sick of these mainstream entities.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

9. Hey CNN: What good is the 1st Amendment if you shackle yourselves to Trump's hind leg?

[Aussie105]

10. Why are some of the MSM folk the last to realize they are making themselves irrelevant?

When your 'news' is mostly one sided opinion and propaganda, people notice.

Reeks of desperation.

[Kaleva]

11. Relatively very few adults watch cable news

The percentage is in the single digits.

It might be best if cable news tanks. That might wean those who want pundits to tell them what to think and force them to source raw news and come to their own conclusions.

[MrsCheaplaugh]

12. Gee, no one's interested in watching Fox Lite

I haven't watched CNN since 2001.

[yardwork]

13. A lot of us remember when cable news emerged.

I remember watching CNN during the coup in the Soviet Union and the first Iraq war. They had journalists on site. They were much better than the "canned spaghetti" network evening news.

Now cable news is passé - destroyed by predatory capitalism. They eliminated foreign correspondence, stopped covering important issues, stopped doing in-depth investigatory journalism. CNN and the others became Fox News lite. Infotainment - with not much info. The fact that "our media" didn't even bother to explain tariffs until after the election says it all.

It's time for us to find new ways to get the news out.

[Bengus81]

14. Joe and Meeka....take note! Kissing Trumps abundant ass has consequences

Your next asshats,and going to FAUX won't change anything.............