Another year of bashing conservatives aside, CNN just had one of its worst years yet, according to the most recent ratings. A last place finish is nothing new for the increasingly left leaning network, but the most recent figures suggest their popularity is plummeting even further and that the future may hold dire news for the brand.
Primetime hours, those that matter most to advertisers and brands, saw CNN plummet down to ninth place. This positioning is not just among news channels, but includes all cable programming. In contrast, the often mocked and derided Fox News came in first place in prime time among all cable programming. MSNBC managed to cling to third place, and CNN trailed dramatically and embarrassingly behind.
Despite a massive year for news, with everything from elections to mass shootings and even impeachment hearings, this news channel was still unable to attract a million prime time viewers on an average evening.
CNN Daytime Ratings Plummet
Things don’t get better in the daytime for CNN, either. The brand is still trailing many other stations with daytime viewers, as seen in the rankings below:
Average Daytime Viewers per Day in 2019 for cable channels:
- FOX NEWS CHANNEL, 1.394 million viewers per day
- MSNBC, 990,000 daily viewers
- ESPN, 719,000 people watch daily
- NICKELODEON, 687,000 kids and adults tune in
- HOME AND GARDEN TV, 672,000 people watch during the day
- INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY, 657,000 tune in for science and true crime stories each day
- CNN, 649,000 still return for leftist news
- HALLMARK CHANNEL, 605,000 fans watch daily
- USA NETWORK, 514,000 viewers tune in each day
- FOOD NETWORK, 513,000 foodies watch each day
CNN”s abysmal showing highlights just how far the once popular network has fallen. Of all its shows, the most popular broadcast on CNN is Primetime – which came in at 24th place for individual programming throughout the year. The 23 shows ahead of this program are 14 Fox News programs and 9 MSNBC shows. People are watching the news in record numbers, they are just no longer tuning into CNN.
CNN Fails Around the Clock
Both Fox News and MSNBC handily defeated CNN, but so did many other, non-news networks. Home and Garden TV and Hallmark Channel both came in ahead of CNN, as did both TNT and TBS. Even the USA network squeaked out a victory over CNN, and the History channel saw just 3,000 fewer average viewers per night.
What’s behind the fall of this once mighty network? It is hard to speculate, but it is worth noting that the channel’s decline seems to coincide with its commitment to left-wing, progressive viewpoints and a biased reporting style. Both of these approaches have been the hallmarks of CNN in recent years, and the network continues to lose viewers to more conservative, non-news and unbiased programming on other channels.
