Skip to main content
We may receive compensation from affiliate partners for some links on this site. Read our full Disclosure here.

90% Nosedive: CNN Experiences Historic Ratings Plummet, Falls to Last Place


4,347 views

Things aren’t going so well at CNN.

The first viewership figures are in for 2022.

All other news networks have held steady or have even increased.

But CNN?

They experienced a 90% nosedive in ratings.

That’s right:

90% of people who watched CNN in 2021 are not watching now.

They averaged just over 548,000 viewers.

I guess that’s what you get when you focus on fake news stories that no one cares about!

https://twitter.com/bonchieredstate/status/1479646706362982404

CNN came in third place, behind both Fox News and MSNBC.

This means that they were last place among the cable news networks.

The New York Post attributes this to the scandals that CNN has faced:

CNN’s ratings took a nosedive by a massive 90 percent both overall and in the all-important demographic coveted by advertisers in the first week of the new year.

The Jeff Zucker-led cable news network averaged just 548,000 viewers during the week of Jan. 3 — a major drop from the nearly 2.7 million viewers for the same week in 2021, according to Nielsen ratings.

The year-ago ratings were jolted by the left-leaning network’s coverage of the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, which resulted in CNN having its most-watched day since Ted Turner launched the news outlet in 1980.

But on the one-year anniversary of the attacks, viewers flipped over to CNN’s right-wing rival, Fox News, which topped the ratings for coverage of the event.

CNN has been plagued by a cascade of high-profile scandals, most notably the firing of its primetime star Chris Cuomo after the anchor was found to be secretly aiding the defense of his embattled older brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, over sexual harassment allegations that resulted in his resignation.

CNN’s longtime boss Zucker was slammed last month over the network’s low ratings and dealings over scandals concerning network stars Cuomo and Don Lemon.

Lemon, the host of the 10 p.m. show that followed Cuomo before he was fired, faced his own ethics scandal. The primetime anchor was criticized for covering Jussie Smollett’s trial after the “Empire” actor testified in court that the host informed him via text message that Chicago police did not believe he was the victim of a racist homophobic attack.

Lemon is also being sued by a Hamptons bartender who claims the anchor, who is gay, rubbed his own genitals, then shoved his fingers in his face in 2018.

That’s gotta be embarrassing.

Seriously.

There are many websites (such as WeLoveTrump) that get more readers and impressions than CNN has viewers!

And they’re supposedly one of the biggest names in news!

The ratings are so bad that even overseas news outlets are noticing.

CNN was once a respected name in news.

But this ratings collapse shows how quickly an empire can fall.

According to the UK’s Daily Mail:

Scandal-scarred CNN has seen its viewership nosedive by a staggering 90 percent both overall and in the critical demographic coveted by advertisers in the first week of the new year as compared to last year.

The once-proud leader in cable news averaged just 548,000 viewers during the week of January 3, a precipitous drop from the nearly 2.7 million viewers for the same week in 2021, according to the most recent ratings.

Those numbers were supercharged by the the left-leaning network’s coverage of the January 6 Capitol Riot, which resulted in CNN having its most-watched day since Ted Turner launched the news outlet in 1980.

However, on the one-year anniversary of the insurrection, viewers chose right-wing rival Fox as it topped ratings for coverage of the event.

CNN also saw an 86 percent decline in the much-desirable 25-to-54 demographic, with a paltry 113,000 tuned in last week, compared to the 822,000 CNN averaged a year ago.

The network, which was swallowed up by AT&T in its merger with WarnerMedia last year, has been plagued by high-profile scandals – most notably the firing of its top-rated prime time star Chris Cuomo after the anchor was found to be helping his sex-pest brother Andrew try to beat harassment allegations, which led to his resignation as New York’s governor.

Will CNN’s ratings recover later in the year?

Time will tell.

But given their scandals, error-riddled reporting, and Biden’s historic unpopularity, we have a hard time seeing it.

Maybe they’ll realize that it’s better to report real news rather than fake news.



 

Join the conversation!

Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!

Hey, Noah here!

Wondering where we went?

Read this and bookmark our new site!

See you over there!

Thanks for sharing!