It’s already been a rough year at CNN headquarters now that former President Donald J. Trump is no longer in the White House. It has cost the cable network dearly in terms of lost viewership and plummeting ratings.
For the duration of Trump’s historic four years in office, the self-proclaimed “most trusted name in news” waged a propaganda war against a duly elected president. Their mission was to run him out of Washington and provide Trump haters with a daily fix of wacky conspiracy theories, fake news, and hysteria. However, now that he’s gone CNN is struggling badly.
To say that the ratings are horrific would be an understatement. The network is bleeding out and badly in need of a tourniquet. They have lost over half of their viewers since Trump packed up and headed to Mar-a-Lago. According to a Fox News report, “CNN averaged 2.2 million viewers during the first three weeks of 2021, but it has averaged just one million viewers since Biden took office, a staggering decline of 54 percent.”
Viewership suffered even worse declines with the crucial 25-54 demographic, a key audience in terms of advertising which suffered a staggering 60 percent dropoff.
Fox reports that, “it averaged 617,000 demo viewers from Dec. 28 through Inauguration Day but only 244,000 since Biden entered the White House.” This should be extremely worrisome to CNN management and shareholders. They believed that going all-in on a jihad against Trump was an effective business model. Now they’re learning that long-term ratings being sacrificed for short-term gain isn’t sustainable.
Such tomfoolery had the illusion of working for a little while, as CNN’s stable of hosts whipped up hostility against Trump. They put on a veritable freak show of regular guests, including corrupt lawyer Michael Avenatti and adult film “actress” Stormy Daniels. The disgusting duo became regulars in their prime time lineup. It was ratings gold but apparently impossible to replicate over a prolonged period of time. They couldn’t possibly keep filling the need to up the stakes higher and higher to keep their audience.
Adding to the network’s woes was the decision to end the long-running Airport Network. CNN was no longer able to force-feed its leftist propaganda to a captive audience of stranded travelers in the nation’s airports. In January, CNN CEO Jeff Zucker notified his employees that due to a “steep decline” in travel due to the COVID outbreak that the broadcasts would no longer be transmitted.
While the decrease in air travel due to the pandemic was definitely a factor, the absence of 24/7 negative coverage of Trump is clearly the major reason. Especially when considering that DNC-Deep State organ MSNBC had also seen a major ratings decline since Biden’s installation.
According to Fox, “MSNBC lost 34 percent of its total-day viewers and 30 percent during primetime under Biden, while Fox News has retained most of its audience with single-digit declines.”
It is also worth noting that before Trump stunned the world with his 2016 upset of the “unbeatable” Hillary Clinton, CNN’s ratings were in the tank. The network largely depended on milking national disasters, chasing after missing airplanes, and teenagers who vanished while on vacation. And of course the hot, late-breaking news we all need of exploiting sleazy celebrity sex scandals.
There is some temporary hope for CNN though, especially if the jury in the George Floyd murder trial delivers the “wrong” verdict against former police office Derek Chauvin. Minneapolis will be burned to the ground followed by violent riots in major cities from coast to coast. CNN will be there, cheering it all on with their “all-star” lineup of commentators who will revel in the mayhem.
However make no mistake, even an extended period of nationwide anarchy isn’t going to be enough to save CNN from itself.
Author: Chris Donaldson
Source: Trending Politics: CNN Ratings Totally Collapse Without Trump To Kick Around Anymore