Playing “Twilight Zone” with a missing airliner and spreading lies to gin up riots in the predominantly black, working class city of Ferguson did absolutely nothing to stop CNN’s freefall in the ratings. Under Jeff Zucker, 2014 was nothing short of a catastrophe for the left-wing cable network.
2014 was the year of false narratives at CNN, and because no one likes to be lied to, viewers went elsewhere.
According to Deadline, during the all-important primetime hours, CNN’s total viewers hit an all-time low. With the even more-important news demo (viewers aged 25-54) in primetime, CNN hit its second-lowest level ever. In total day viewers, CNN again collapsed to an all-time low in the news demo.
Zucker’s unspoken but obvious decision to turn CNN into a hard-left network obsessed with race-baiting, identity politics, and heartless, mean-girl Palin-bashing mixed with Christian-bashing has backfired spectacularly.
CNN just cut 8% of its total staff, allowing Zucker to claim that CNN is “in our best shape .. financially.” He can also boast that CNN is in second place to MSNBC, but MSNBC is imploding in its own very special way with a loss of 17% of news demo viewers, compared to CNN’s loss of 1%. Fox News increased its already considerable news demo viewership a full 3%.
Zucker claimed that CNN ended the year “solidly in second place,” which sounds pretty great until you look at the actual numbers. CNN’s barely ahead of MSNBC in 3 of 4 areas, and lost to MSNBC in total primetime viewers.
Meanwhile, without breaking a sweat and for the 13th year in a row, Fox News is dominating both of its left-wing competitors.
2014 total day viewers — total and news demo viewers, respectively:
Fox News: 1,052,000 – 214,000
CNN: 399,000 – 126,000
MSNBC: 347,000 – 108,000
2014 primetime viewers — total and news demo viewers, respectively:
Fox News: 1,756,000 – 301,000
CNN: 516,000 – 181,000
MSNBC: 590,000 – 169,000
John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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