CNN is not ready to admit it, but their viewership numbers are declining. Not only are they just declining, but they’re dropping even faster than many anticipated in the face of it’s obvious drop in content quality.
Despite these lower numbers, the network would like to have everyone believe that they are not suffering in the slightest. However, this is not something that has just recently started in the past month. The numbers for CNN have been falling for months, and this is the worst one that they have seen yet.
The world’s oldest 24-7 cable news network may be used to lying, but the actual numbers won’t – and they are astonishing.
What the Numbers are Saying
If you were to take a look at a snapshot of viewership from June 27th, you would be amazed at how CNN compares to other networks. In fact, CNN was unable to reach 900,000 viewers in any of their primetime spots on that day. The closest they got was during the 7pm hour where they reached 886,000.
When you compare those to numbers of the other networks, that is where it really starts to look bad for the network. Fox News reached their peak viewership that day during the 8pm hour with 2,792,000 viewers. MSNBC reached 2,454,000 viewers during the 9pm hour.
Fox News had almost triple the amount of viewers in the primetime slots on that night and MSNBC, once considered the distant third-place competitor, doubled CNN’s viewership.
The Drastic Change
It is not just that the numbers are low for CNN, but that they have continued to decline while other networks are going in the opposite direction.
Since the election, Fox News has had a steady increase in ratings, and have only increased their viewership. Now, CNN is barely in the top as a cable network too, not just when compared to similar outlets.
On the list of all cable new channels, Fox News is placed first, MSNBC is placed third, and CNN is in tenth place. Furthermore, only one CNN primetime program is on the top 20 list for cable news shows. The show is Anderson Cooper’s 360, and it placed number 20 on the list for the second quarter of 2017.
What May Be Causing This Decline?
“The Most Trusted Name in News” is slowly turning into anything but. When you take a look at the behavior of the network over the past few months and during the election, it is clear why they are not doing so great in terms of viewership.
CNN did everything they could to help stop Donald Trump from becoming president. They made openly false claims about polling data, and even helped Hilary Clinton by giving her some of the questions that would be asked prior to a debate.
There are many shady things the network has done, and they have not slowed down since the election. What CNN wants and what America wants are two different things, but the network has become so corrupt that they fail to see it and will not stop until they get what they want or they fail as a network. The latter is what is coming to fruition, although CNN is still not acknowledging it.
There is no way of knowing how CNN will build back their viewership. As long as they stay in denial about the declining numbers it’s likely they will do nothing – and make no effort to reign in editorial professionalism, fact-check online content, or even apologize for their detraction from honest journalism.
If they plan on staying relevant, CNN needs to make serious structural changes. One of the best things they can do moving forward is start reporting actual news – instead of surrendering to being a leftist mouthpiece. Additionally, they can likely tone down their “destroy Trump at all costs” crusade. All of these things together are helping to cause the decline, and America is speaking with these numbers.
~ Liberty Planet
