Nolte: Dying CNN’s Iowa Caucus Viewership Plummets 61% Compared to 2020

During the first political primary of the 2024 presidential election, once again starring Donald Trump, CNN only barely cracked 700,000 total average prime-time viewers (707,000 to be precise).

If my math is correct, during CNNLOL’s specific Iowa caucus coverage between 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. EST, the network averaged only 689,000 viewers.

MSNBC didn’t do all that much better, averaging a total of 1.179 million primetime viewers.

Fox News earned 2.886 million, beating both combined by almost exactly a million viewers.

TOTAL PRIMETIME VIEWERS / DEMO VIEWERS (25-54)

• FOX NEWS: 2.886 million / 419K
• MSNBC: 1.179 million / 150K
• CNNLOL: 707,000 / 202K

TOTAL DAY VIEWERS / DEMO VIEWERS (25-54)

• FOX NEWS: 1.735 million / 226K
• MSNBC: 830K / 83K
• CNNLOL: 520K / 118K

Those demo numbers, which decide advertising rates, are brutally low. No one will ever confuse me with a Fox News fan, but I can remember all that glee 10 or 15 years ago when the Smart Set told us MSNBC and CNN would be dominant by now after Fox’s viewers died of old age. Fox still attracts more young viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined.

As you can see in the chart, throughout the full day of the Iowa caucuses, when you would think Americans by the millions would tune in for the latest blow-dried CNN analysis, CNN averaged only 520,000 viewers. MSNBC topped out at 830,000. Fox News attracted 1.735 million.

All three networks are down compared to the total prime-time viewers for the 2020 Iowa caucuses. Fox News is down 34 percent (4.4 million 2020 viewers), MSNBC is down 53 percent (2.5 million in 2020), and CNN is down 61 percent (1.8 million in 2020).

Sixty-one percent!

Could it be that finally Finally FINALLY the American people are waking up to the fact that cable news, especially CNN (a far-left conspiracy theory outlet that meddles in elections and spreads political violence), is a toxic waste dump of lies and stupid, crazy, racist division and hate?

Part of the problem for cable news — and by “problem,” I mean “glorious news” — is that in 2020, nearly 80 million households subscribed to cable/satellite TV. Today, that number is closer to 56 million. The pool of cable news viewers is much smaller than it was four years ago. Eight years ago, in 2016, nearly 98 million subscribed to pay TV. It can only be good for America if fewer and fewer households allow the open sewer pipe of cable news into their homes.

Nevertheless, a 28 percent decrease in pay TV subscribers does not fully explain CNN losing 61 percent of its audience.

Me? I think CNN’s problems are foundational. The first issue is trust. Remember all this:

• Russia Collusion Hoax
• Hands Up, Don’t Shoot Hoax
• Jussie Smollett Hoax
• Covington KKKids Hoax
• Very Fine People Hoax
• Seven-Hour Gap Hoax
• Russian Bounties Hoax
• Trump Trashes Troops Hoax
• Policemen Killed at Mostly Peaceful January 6 Protest Hoax
• Rittenhouse Hoax
• Eating While Black Hoax
• Border Agents Whipping Illegals Hoax
• NASCAR Noose Hoax
• The Georgia Jim Crow 2.0 Hoax
• Trump Assaulted Secret Service Agents and Grabbed Steering Wheel of Beast Hoax
• MAGA Assaulted Paul Pelosi Hoax
• COVID Lab Leak Theory Is Racist Hoax
• Hunter Biden’s Laptop Is Russian Disinformation Hoax
• Joe Biden Will Never Ban Gas Stoves Hoax
• COVID Deaths are Over-Counted Is a Conspiracy Theory Hoax
• Mass Graves of Native Children in Canada Hoax
• The Trump Killed All the Fish Hoax
• Hamas Hospital Hoax
• John Fetterman Is Healthy Hoax
• If Reelected, Trump Will Execute People Hoax
• The Alfa Bank Hoax

Then there’s the basic fact that CNN employs the most unappealing stable of anchors ever assembled before a television camera. Smug, dishonest, manipulative, superior, bigoted, humorless, self-important and just plain oily.

How can CNN possibly survive if its affirmative action dies? (Fewer pay-TV subscribers equals less free money from carriage fees.) CNN would’ve filed for bankruptcy a decade ago in a free market founded on merit (advertising dollars based on viewership numbers). Oh, and streaming is merit-based.

If CNN cannot top a million voters on Iowa caucus night with its bête noir Trump back at the top of the ticket, this is a fake news outlet in even more trouble than I had hoped — and you can’t begin to imagine how much I hope CNN dies a long, painful, humiliating, and expensive death.

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I find myself reading less and less these days as all pop culture (books, movies, music) have degenerated into simplistic “content” that tries to beat you over the head with a message. That being said, I found … Borrowed Time to be refreshing and delightful with complex characters and a messy (re: authentic) world. Also, I have to commend you on your idea of what heaven looks like. Too many writers have a trite vision of heaven, but I found both versions of heaven that you came up with (Doreen’s version of heaven as a campground with the Arthurs and Mason version with Doreen and Hok’ee) to be true to those characters and sublime.  — Reader email.

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