CNN Viewership Has Dropped More than 50% Since Biden Took Office

CNN has been hemorrhaging viewers since President Biden took office, with ratings down more than 50 percent in multiple categories since Inauguration Day.  

The liberal network spent years attacking former President Donald Trump and the network thrived during his final days in office amid a brief post-election spike. 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.

CNN’s struggles are even more prominent among the key advertising demographic of adults age 25-54, with a drop of 60 percent. It averaged 617,000 demo viewers from Dec. 28 through Inauguration Day but only 244,000 since Biden entered the White House.

CNN’s liberal primetime hosts Anderson Cooper, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon haven’t been able to keep their audiences under the new administration, either.

CNN averaged 3.1 million viewers from 8-11 p.m. from Dec. 28 through Inauguration Day but only 1.4 million since for a whopping 55-percent decline. Over the same time period, CNN’s primetime lineup lost 63 percent of its viewers among the crucial demo.

The primetime numbers are abysmal among CNN's key audience. The network's target age group is those aged 25 to 54, according to MIT Media Lab. CNN has seen a 47% drop in viewership in that demographic during Biden's inauguration and March 15, Fox News said.

During daytime hours, CNN's ratings aren't faring much better. The network saw the number of daytime viewers drop by 34%  in the period between the election and Inauguration Day, according to Fox News. Among the key age demographic, CNN lost 58% of those aged 25 to 54.

CNN thrived during the Trump presidency. The network hit a 40-year viewership record in November 2020, The New York Times reported.

But there's "palpable concern" that the former president's departure will cause a sustained slump in cable-news ratings, Variety's Brian Steinberg said.