Slow Death: CNN Dropped Below "Pawn Stars" Channel in Ratings
By now it has become predictable old news to hear that Fox News Channel defeated their cable news rivals CNN and MSNBC in the weekly ratings, as they have finished number one out of the big three in total average viewers per day for 31 consecutive weeks, according to Adweek.
Nor is it a surprise to hear that Fox beat their rivals in prime time viewership either, as they have done so for 11 consecutive weeks now.
What is somewhat surprising, and incredibly laughable, is that CNN — the formerly vaunted crown jewel of the establishment media — has sunk so low in the ratings that they are losing out to other basic cable networks in terms of prime time viewers, networks with decidedly less important topics to air than the serious news of the day.
The Daily Caller noted that while Fox ranked number one in total prime time viewers for the week of August 6-12 — 2.18 million viewers on the average evening — and were followed closely by MSNBC — 1.75 million viewers — both were trailed significantly by CNN, which averaged only 992,000 viewers during the prime time hours.
That placed CNN at seventh on the list, behind such basic cable networks as Home and Garden Television (1.33 million), USA Network (1.25 million), the History Channel (1.06 million) and TBS Network (1.02 million).
Essentially, CNN’s prime time stars like Anderson Cooper and Chris Cuomo are drawing fewer viewers than History Channel shows such as “Pawn Stars,” “American Pickers,” “Counting Cars,” “Mountain Men,” and perhaps funniest of all, “Ancient Aliens.”
Indeed, it would appear that more Americans would prefer to watch people haggle over the price of obscure antiques and old cars — or dive into the conspiracy theory of intelligent aliens visiting ancient civilizations on earth to help build the pyramids and teach them other civilization-building knowledge — than watch Cooper or Cuomo prattle on about Russians or bash the Trump administration on a daily basis.
Some of our readers who frequent social media have likely seen the memes of “Ancient Aliens” crazy-haired star Giorgio Tsoukalos stating “I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.”
That meme has recently been transformed in light of the ratings news to now feature Cooper or Cuomo stating, “I’m not saying it was the Russians, but it was probably the Russians.”
Last week's ratings are in! People would rather watch bizarre conspiracy theories about aliens building the pyramids than @CNN.
CNN lost to @HISTORY's primetime lineup, which includes the show "Ancient Aliens."
CNN: 992,000
HISTORY: 1.06 million https://t.co/5X8Z7SK5vw pic.twitter.com/2saEeVFMPX— Amber Duke (Athey) (@ambermarieduke) August 14, 2018
It is worth noting that while CNN lost out to the History Channel during prime time hours, the media outlet did manage to beat the History Channel in terms of total day viewers — 674,000 to 548,000. That means that at least some day time viewers seem to prefer watching CNN compare the current administration to Nazis than watching documentaries on actual Nazis during WWII.
So there is that, I guess, that CNN has going for them. Now if only CNN can find a way to woo viewers away from Nickelodeon, HGTV and Investigation Discovery … but they’d still be trailing Fox and MSNBC during the day.
It is also worth pointing out that while Adweek had noted that number one Fox News had seen a slight decline in its total numbers over last year — down 4 percent in total day viewers and down 18 percent among the key 25-54 demographic — CNN saw an even greater decline in their viewer numbers over last year.
Indeed, CNN’s daytime total was off by 13 percent and they fell by 23 percent in terms of the key 25-54 demographic of viewers that advertisers are so fond of.
We are witnessing the slow death of the overtly biased liberal media — which isn’t confined simply to TV, as formerly widely-read legacy newspapers have also seen immense drops in their numbers. This decline has been brought about their own actions, and no amount of kicking and screaming about Russia, Trump is Hitler or racism everywhere is going to save them.
Reporting the news in a straight-forward and objective manner is the only remedy that will save them now, but that might as well be buried beneath an alien spacecraft hidden inside a pyramid or tucked away on the back shelf of a pawn shop, given the media’s continued lurch leftward in spite of their plummeting ratings.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
