Nolte: Don Lemon's Morning Show Debuts to Ratings Humiliation

The widely publicized debut of Don Lemon’s CNN This Morning delivered even lower ratings than its basement-rated predecessor New Day.

“Tuesday’s debut of CNN’s revamped morning show, CNN This Morning, slumped to a third-place finish in the cable news ratings, drawing an average audience of 387,000 viewers,” reports Forbes.

“That means the months-in-the-making new show—backed by significant promotion—actually did worse on its first morning than the show it replaced, the ratings-starved New Day, which in its last year averaged 414,000 viewers.”

This surprises me.

Like the news yesterday that CNN is shedding viewers as we move closer to next week’s midterm election, this is unexpected.

Not for a moment did I expect Don Lemon, who was a total and complete failure in CNN primetime, to juice CNN’s morning ratings. I just didn’t believe it was possible to post lower ratings than New Day.

For context, while Don Lemon and his insufferable morning co-hosts were serving up a paltry 387,000 viewers, MSNBC’s Morning Joe attracted only 793,000, but still doubled CNN. Meanwhile, the Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends beat both MSNBC and CNNLOL combined with 1.452 million viewers.

Worse news for CNN comes in the form of demo viewers, which sets advertising rates. One-hundred-thousand demo viewers are considered the “acceptable” bottom. CNN This Morning drew only 71,000. Morning Joe snagged 114,000, while Fox & Friends beat them both combined with 236,000,

Fox News had almost as many demo viewers (236,000) as CNN did total viewers (387,000).

LOL.

CNN’s new left-wing chief said this in September when announcing his morning revamp: “There is no stronger combination of talent than Don, Poppy, and Kaitlan to deliver on our promise of a game-changing morning news program,” he gushed.

“They are each uniquely intelligent, reliable and compelling,” he added, “together they have a rare and palpable chemistry. Combined with CNN’s resources and global newsgathering capabilities, we will offer a smart, bold, and refreshing way to start the day.”

What an idiot.

At the time, I laughed at the idea of moving deck chairs like Don Lemon and Jake Tapper around the deck of the Titanic, but I never expected this.

Lower ratings than New Day? That sounds as impossible to me as dumber than Chris Cuomo, smugger than Jake Tapper, fatter than Brian Stelter, or more corrupt than Jeff Zucker.

Licht really is an idiot. What makes him think he can move failure around the game board and come up with success? If Don Lemon is a failure during primetime, he will be a failure in the morning. The problem with Don Lemon is Don Lemon, not his timeslot.

Same with Jake Tapper.

If Jake Tapper is failing in the afternoons, what made Chris Licht Jake Tapper would soar during primetime? The problem with Jake Tapper is Jake Tapper, not his timeslot.

CNN has two massive problems. The first is credibility, which can be fixed. It will take time, a lot of time, but CNN can rebuild trust over the years if it will only stop lying. Fat chance of that, but it is possible.

CNN’s other problem is personnel; the only way to solve that problem is to invest in new personnel. It’s not just that CNN is staffed with low-rent, dishonest, left-wing activists… MSNBC has plenty of those and crushes CNN.

No, CNN’s problem is that almost to a person, its anchors are smug, self-righteous, humorless, and deeply unlikeable. You cannot move faces despised by the public to different timeslots. You have to replace them.

To be clear, I’m not calling for anyone to be fired. I don’t do that. Besides, watching CNN crash and burn brings me more joy than Christmas morning. Believe me; I have zero desire to see anything change over there. All I’m doing is stating the obvious.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.