Too much fake news.
CNN Sees One of Its Lowest Ratings Ever as Massive Layoffs Loom
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 their vanishing viewership. Just last month, MSNBC beat CNN on election night, once CNN’s crown jewel of programing, 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.”
CNN declined to comment, instead pointing to its ratings release that touted it as “the top digital news outlet in the world” and a top five cable outlet. In the release, however, it noted how “media habits change and the industry evolves,” emphasizing how it’s publicly trying to posture ratings as less relevant—all while it’s sagging behind Fox News and MSNBC in viewership.
The network has already seen some high-profile exits. Chris Wallace, the esteemed newsman who abandoned Fox News after its rampant (and litigated) election denialism for CNN, chose to leave the network last month to make the leap into streaming. The space, he told the Daily Beast, is “where the action seems to be.”
Anchor Alisyn Camerota also announced last week that she’d leave the network after 10 years, and Gloria Borger, a longtime CNN analyst who became a fixture during the network’s seemingly unending political coverage, departed the company on Wednesday. “My first order of business is to spend time ungoverned by a TV schedule,” she told the Daily Beast in a statement. “I’ll always be watching and cheering for CNN.”
CNN also laid off 100 people in July as part of its first round of digital “expansion,” later instituting a paywall and promising moves into lifestyle coverage.
“Turning a great news organization toward the future is not a one-day affair,” Thompson wrote in a staff memo at the time, according to The New York Times.
It appears it may not be a one-year affair either.
