After his first full year on the job, CNN Chief Jeff Zucker has led his dying cable news network to a disastrous February 2014. When compared to February 2013 (Zucker took over in January 2013) Deadline reports that Anderson Cooper lost 47% of his overall audience and 46% in the demo. Erin Burnett lost 39% of her total audience and the about-to-be-canceled Piers Morgan lost 46%.
There is no good reason for this, other than viewers abandoning CNN in droves. There was no presidential election last February and Fox News actually gained in total and demo viewers February over February.
The problem is CNN. Period.
Total February Fox viewers: The O’Reilly Factor (2,937,000); The Kelly File (2,337,000); On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren (1,938,000).
Total CNN viewers: Anderson Cooper (421,000); Erin Burnett (293,000); Piers Morgan (347,000).
Once again, CNN came in a distant third behind MSNBC. And why wouldn’t they? No one is minding the CNN store.
Despite knowing Morgan was on his way to cancelation, CNN and Morgan apparently did nothing to try to save the show. Up until the week before the cancelation announcement, Morgan was still boorishly prattling on about gun control. It seems safe to assume CNN and Morgan would rather face cancelation than drop the relentless crusade to violate our Second Amendment civil rights.
Judging by the network as a whole, Zucker seems willing to see CNN implode rather than give up his left-wing crusading. CNN’s wild turn to the left these past few weeks has been stunning to behold. The network’s hypocritical rampage against Ted Nugent last week, and the anti-Christian rampage against Arizona this week, have actually made MSNBC a better choice for serious news and even balance.
CNN is a dying network.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC