CNN.

The network that used to brand itself the “Most Trusted Name in News” and was once the leader of the pack in cable news is now being beaten continuously by its rivals. Possibly, activists posing as journalists is not the ratings juggernaut some thought it would be in Atlanta.

Beginning the week of July 5th, CNN viewership dropped by 19%  with both overall eyeballs on the channel and with the main advertiser target of 25-54 segment of the population. Even more shocking is their morning news show “New Day” which hit a new low in the crucial demographic of 25-54, with only 76,000 people watching.

More numbers from Fox News…

“New Day” averaged only 433,000 total viewers during the week for its lowest-rated week of 2021, while time-slot competition “FOX & Friends” delivered 1.1 million viewers. The recently revamped “New Day” has now failed to reach 500,000 average viewers for 11 straight weeks.

“It’s remarkably low viewership when putting these three numbers into context. CNN is in more than 90 million homes. It has been in existence for 41 years, almost more than any other cable network. And its morning show oftentimes can’t deliver more than 500,000 viewers,” said Joe Concha, Fox News contributor and The Hill media columnist.

Concha is being kind here with his remarkably low viewership comment. CNN used to be the gold standard for news not only in this country but also for news worldwide and they were only topped by the BBC on the world stage. Now they struggle to top the number of viewers Nickelodeon gets.

That they can no longer attract the majority of an audience for people who are daily news addicts is a stunning indictment of the way you do business.

Now, I’m not going to do what political operatives do when they give advice to their counterparts on how they should do things or act. You know the type — when a Democrat gives their heartfelt advice to their Republican counterpart on how to win an election. My hypocrisy can only go so far.

However, I will link to my colleague Brad Slager who wrote a piece about CNN stalwart Brian Stelter who DOES love to tell others how to improve their shows and point out what they get wrong while he is a bit mired in the muck of his own ratings gloom.

From Brad’s article here…

The latest episode concerning Mr. Stelter initially looks innocuous, but as has been the case this involves ratings, and that particular subject has been a minefield for the man. As most know, CNN has suffered significant audience flight, and in particular, Brian’s show, Reliable Sources, has been affected. He has failed to draw a million viewers over the past few months, with numbers below 700K frequently seen. On Fox News, the similar show Media Buzz is on at the same time, and 1.2 million viewers is the norm for host Howard Kurtz.

Anytime Brian addresses the erosion of his viewers he dismisses the discussion, calling ratings a cyclical animal and that it is a foolhardy data point to overemphasize. While there has been a slide in viewers across all news networks CNN has seen a precipitous fall. And then there are those moments when there is an uptick moment at CNN, and suddenly Stelter is full of boastful pride. Case in point, he recently touted the performance of his network over the weekend.

Maybe if CNN actually wanted to improve their ratings they could start with getting on-air talent that didn’t obsess about shoving their political view into almost any broadcast time they have and try to pass it off as news. Possibly that is why CNN has had the incredible collapse that they have over the past decade. Maybe it is a factor of things that people who are much smarter than I could discuss one day. They could try to help Jeffery Zucker and his floundering network challenge MSNBC or Fox for being the top in cable news again.

Whether that happens or not is to be seen. In the meantime, I will continue to be one of the millions of Americans who does not find CNN to be a destination to watch the news at any point in time during my limited TV viewing during the day or night.

Unless of course, someone passes me a YouTube clip of Stelter and Co. trying to do some newsy stuff and missing the mark as they do so well.

Those CNN clips are almost as funny as the late-night comics at night.

Actually, they are funnier.