CNN had its smallest weekday audience since the Obama administration on Tuesday as ratings woes continue to plague the struggling network.
CNN, which was purchased by Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year following the closing of a $43 billion merger, averaged only 393,000 total viewers on June 14. The dismal turnout was CNN’s smallest weekday audience since Nov. 2, 2015 if you exclude Thanksgiving Day.
The network also had its least-viewed, non-Thanksgiving weekday during the hours of 9 a.m. through 5 p.m. when CNN’s daytime lineup managed only 489,000 average viewers. It was CNN’s worst performance in that category since Nov. 3, 2015.
CNN had its smallest weekday, non-Thanksgiving audience since the Obama administration on Tuesday. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images/REUTERS/Mike Segar/CNN)
CNN’S ‘RELIABLE SOURCES’ WITH BRIAN STELTER DRAWS SMALLEST AUDIENCE SINCE 2019
CNN developed a reputation for relying on critical coverage of former-President Trump to attract liberal viewers under former boss Jeff Zucker, but Tuesday’s gloomy turnout came one day after the Jan. 6 committee spent Monday focused heavily on Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results through litigation. CNN shed a staggering 43% of the 694,000 total viewers who tuned in on Monday when there was no hearing on Tuesday.
The rock-bottom viewership came as recently appointed CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht – who replaced Zucker – is expected to address staffers during an internal staff meeting on Thursday. He previously informed staffers he would "double down on what's working well and quickly eliminate what's not," and there have since been lingering questions about what programs or personalities were scrapped by the new regime.
CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
CNN WILL 'REIMAGINE' LONG-STRUGGLING MORNING SHOW 'NEW DAY,' CEO SAYS
Long-struggling morning show "New Day" will be re-imagined later this year, Licht announced at the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront event last month. Other changes have not yet been announced, but Licht has stated he wants to put an emphasis on news, as opposed to liberal opinion programming.
CNN’s morning show will be "reimagined" later this year, according to chairman and CEO Chris Licht.
CNN'S BRIAN STELTER, JIM ACOSTA SINGLED OUT AS LIBERAL HOSTS WHO COULD BE ‘OUSTED’ BY NEW REGIME
Tuesday’s bleak performance came 48 hours after CNN’s "Reliable Sources" with Brian Stelter on Sunday had its lowest-rated episode since September 2019, on Sunday, with just 580,000 viewers
By comparison, Fox News averaged 1.6 million total viewers on Tuesday when CNN managed only 393,000.
All data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research.
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Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.