CNN's falling ratings
Why has the first 24-hour news network dropped to last place in the prime-time ratings?
CNN's plummeting viewership has landed it in last place for prime-time ratings.
(Corbis/Tom Sibley)
CNN hit a new low in the ratings this month as its prime-time shows finished fourth -- and last -- among the cable news networks. CNN executives said the important thing was that the network still beat its sister network HNL (formerly Headline News) and MSNBC over the whole day -- trailing only Fox News. Why is CNN, which invented the 24-hour cable news channel two decades ago, suddenly struggling?
Viewers want opinionated screaming, not news: CNN is being punished, said Adam K. Raymond in New York magazine, "for airing 'news' while Fox, MSNBC, and HLN put on lunatics screaming at the camera." Larry King Live was the only CNN show that didn't finish "dead last" during the 7 to 10 p.m. slot -- and King only managed a third place finish ahead of HLN's Joy Behar. Clearly, the old formula is no longer working for "the originator of 24-hour news."
"No one watches CNN anymore"
Actually, CNN is over-opinionated, too: CNN's prime-time programs don't lack opinions, said Don Surber in the Charleston, W.V., Daily Mail. It's the "sneaky" way the network uses to express them -- "Anderson Cooper’s sneering contempt for conservative protesters," for example -- that's turned people off, and pulled prime-time ratings down 68 percent. "Cooper and company try to be stealth but they come of as snide and fake, as if they are trying to hide who they really are."
"CNN’s numbers drop 68% in prime to last place"
Bottom line — CNN has a charisma void: The reason viewers are dumping CNN, said blogger Attaturk in Firedoglake, is its prime-time personalities. Wolf Blitzer is bland, Larry King is "a horrid mix of Charlie Rose and Methuselah," and Lou Dobbs is inexplicable.
"The most boring name in news"
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19 Comments
Posted by Mike, Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 11:30 am A lot CNN personalities can be downright annoying at times. The only shows that don't bother me are 360, American Morning, and GPS. Also I really wish there were more programs like GPS, seeing as GPS is the only program that seems to actually cover important issues in depth.
Posted by bon, Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 12:38 pm I agree with Don Suber. We all know that Cooper et. al. have political opinions. We just can't stand that they pretend to be neutral.
Posted by David, Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 12:51 pm Let's add that Glen I can't stop the tears Beck, Nancy DisGrace, and the other rightwing entertainers they don't deserve to be listed in the news category seem to have no shame or sense of accountability including Rush the Mouth Limbaugh. If Cooper's biased, it seems a good bias in favor of the truth over distasteful panic mongering.
Posted by 60 Years of TV News, Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 1:12 pm We happen to be in a moment of history when Americans, regardless of their political persuasion, are mad as Hell. Liberals are mad, conservatives are mad, oldsters, youngsters, black, brown, white, yellow, we're all mad. And we're right to be mad. Our democracy has been stolen by a bunch of rich people. The President promised change and gives us more of the same, and worse. So we're very comfortable with news people who reflect our anger.
Posted by dj spellchecka, Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 1:38 pm raymond is right and suber is wrong..it's obvious that prime time cable news viewers want opinion not news...look at how both faux news and msnbc's numbers spike when the talker shows come on and cnn's fade...even headline news' personality shows draw better than the mothership..they're simply giving away prime time at the moment...i find it inexplicable
Posted by Mike2, Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 2:05 pm Campbell Brown sucks. Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour are both so full of themselves it actually makes me sick. Some people in this country actually want unbiased reporting of the facts. My guess is that if BBC World News were available to mass markets in the US it would be number one in a week.
Posted by JMoynihan, Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 3:06 pm So much of this arguemtn against CNN is based on personal vendetta's against the personale themselves. People accusing Amanpour and Cooper of being egotistical is an external view completely irrelevant to their representation as a member of the media.CNN offers news, not opinions. That's why people don't watch it.In a world saturated with sensationalism, how can the objective even compete.CNN is the ONLY news station which receives hate mail from both Liberals AND Conservatives. That's all you need to know.
Posted by truth, Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 3:39 pm The channel is too biased. Americans have to suffer political bias on EVERY SINGLE news channel, and so they migrate to the channel with the least amount of bias and the most about of news. Unfortunately, that is FOX.
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