CNN Ratings Lose Out to the Food Network As Liberal Media Viewership

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At the risk of sounding melodramatic, everything seems different since Donald Trump won the election. People who, before the election, would not have given him the time of day and even written him off are now making the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago as fast as they can to meet with Trump. The general consensus must be to get on his good side now. But the most fun thing to watch has been the fact that Trump has literally broken the legacy media, and even more fun to watch is their realization of that. Now, the hard data is in, and it doesn’t look good for CNN. In fact, they may want to think about multitasking.

The Cartoon Network now outrates @cnn and @msnbc. https://t.co/dJsyodHlN8

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) December 11, 2024

For the week of December 1 through 7, CNN had a smaller audience than The Food Network. During primetime programming hours, CNN came in at number 17, behind not only the Food Network but TNT, Freeform, Discovery, INSP, Hallmark Mystery, TLC, TBS, History, HGTV, USA, Paramount, Hallmark Channel, ESPN, Fox News, and even MSNBC. CNN’s primetime lineup consists of “Anderson Cooper 360,” “The Source with Kaitlin Collins,” and “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip,” managed to get a whopping average of just 367,000 viewers in the 8-11 p.m. time slot. By comparison, Fox News averaged 2.5 million viewers for the same time slot.

Keep in mind this was by no means a slow news week. Stories included the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the ensuing manhunt, several of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, the reaction to President Joe Biden pardoning his son Hunter after he repeatedly said he would not, and the toppling of the Assad regime by rebels in Syria.

The news doesn’t get any better for CNN. That holy grail for advertisers, the age 25-54 demographic, came in with a mere 67,000 viewers, leading to the network finishing at number 26 among cable stations. Fox News had 280,00 viewers in that demographic. What did those folks think was more entertaining to watch? Old TV shows on TVLand, MTV, however, sadly not for music videos, Nick at Nite, Adult Swim, and Comedy Central, which begs the question, at this point, is there much of a difference between CNN and Comedy Central?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yule Log channel is getting higher ratings than @CNN pic.twitter.com/zFwQQ4Y26g

— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) December 11, 2024

The American people clearly stating that they are all for the Trump agenda has not been good for business for places like CNN and MSNBC. CNN suffered its lowest week of ratings, the week of November 25, with just 268,000 viewers, since June of 2001. Fox News had 1.4 million viewers during the same time. Over at MSNBC, the same demographic has had enough as well. Liberal morning favorite “Morning Joe,” with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, shows viewership is down 35 percent with 720,000, and 37 percent in the 25-54 demographic. But even more viewers felt betrayed, 17 percent to be exact, and stopped watching when Joe and Mika revealed they, too, had gone to Mar-a-Lago and met with Trump.

So, if you are an executive at CNN or MSNBC, are you concerned? It certainly seems like you should be. Don’t you want to know why viewers are no longer tuning in and are passing you up for reruns of the “Andy Griffith Show,” “MASH,” and “Bonanza?” Could it be because the American people no longer feel you are honest and trustworthy? Could it be that they are not stupid hayseeds in flyover country and are well aware of the fact that you look down on them with disgust because they shop at Walmart? There is an easy way for the bigwigs at CNN and MSNBC to find out why their ratings are tanking. Get out of the New York/Washington, D.C. bubble and go talk to some real people. But who believes that would actually happen?

CNN could easily solve their problems all at once. Get Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper a really cool car, maybe a ’67 Camaro, and send them out into the heart of the country, where they would be forced to talk to real Americans and, at the same time, find funky places that serve up great breakfasts and fish tacos. They might just give the Food Network a run for their money.

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