CNN had high hopes for host Kaitlan Collins, announcing that she would take over the primetime 9 p.m. slot on the channel left vacant by Chris Cuomo’s firing in 2021. CNN’s primetime hour had been filled by a rotating selection of hosts. However, the woke news network’s aspirations for Collins may not be panning out.
A surface-level glance at CNN’s ratings would show that Collins is the second most-watched show on the network, which seems okay. However, when you zoom out, she is only the third-most watched cable news show out of the three big networks. The terrible news for Collins is that she has fallen behind old re-runs of cartoons such as South Park and SpongeBob Squarepants.
Many were anticipating Collins to become the next “Andrew Cuomo,” but instead, she is being called the next “Brian Stelter” based on these lackluster ratings. Recent ratings reports show that Collins’ primetime show is struggling behind MSNBC and Fox News. On July 10, “The Rachel Maddow Show” garnered the most viewers with 2.41 million, “Hannity” was in second place with 1.95 million, and Collins only had 540,000 total viewers on her debut.
Furthermore, looking at the key advertising demographic of 25-54 year-olds, only 84,000 watched Kaitlan Collins’ show. These ratings fall behind shows such as “SpongeBob Squarepants,” “Seinfeld,” “South Park,” and “Friends.” It’s not a good sign when shows, some of which are decades old, are outperforming you in the key demographics.
Over the past couple of years, CNN has endured various struggles with leadership change, plummeting ratings, and mass firings. Recently, Kaitlan Collins hosted a CNN town hall featuring former president Donald Trump. The event proved to backfire on the network as many saw it as a win for Trump.
The American Tribune reported that during the event, Trump fact-checked Kaitlan Collins, the crowd cheered for Trump on many occasions, and more. CNN likely wanted to embarrass Trump on live TV, but that completely backfired in front of a massive TV audience of nearly 3 million people.
Not long after this town hall, former CEO and chairman of CNN Christ Licht stepped down from the company. Licht’s leadership at the struggling company was drawn into question, demonstrated by an article written by The Atlantic which featured testimony from nearly 100 employees who did not have faith in his ability to manage the company.
Moreover, CNN’s ratings have been disastrous over the past few years, struggling to keep up with other networks such as Fox News and MSNBC. Recently, CNN’s ratings even fell below Newsmax, a notably smaller conservative news network.
The American Tribune wrote, “CNN averaged 494,000 primetime viewers and 111,000 key demographic viewers. Following the event, the average ratings dropped to 400,000 primetime viewers and 94,000 key demographic viewers. This was nearly a 20 percent drop in primetime viewers for the network. Meanwhile, Fox News and MSNBC were averaging viewership well into the millions.”
Some attribute this drop in ratings to the disastrous Trump town hall, where leftist CNN viewers were displeased seeing Trump successfully debate Collins. Earlier this year, CNN ratings continued their downward trend, collapsing 71 percent versus the prior year.
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