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Ratings Disaster: CNN No Longer Even Ranks Among Top Five Cable Stations

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CNN continues to suffer a massive loss of viewers and its May numbers found it even falling out of the top five most-watched cable networks for the first time in years.

In May, the cable news network ranked as the sixth most-watched cabler and the fourth most-watched basic cable station, but for years it ranked in the top three.

Total daytime viewership fell by 22 percent in May over April, and even more (28 percent) among the most sought after 25-54 aged viewers.

Per TV Newser:

CNN shed -11% in average total prime time viewers, and -21% in the prime-time demo from the prior month (April 2021). The network saw a steeper drop in total day viewing, down -22% in total viewers and -28% in the key A25-54 demo from April. This trend isn’t surprising. Wall-to-wall coverage of the Derek Chauvin murder trial carried CNN’s daytime ratings in April. Not having a comparable news event to broadcast in May hurt CNN’s ratings, moreso than Fox News or MSNBC, whose audiences will stick with those networks regardless of the news cycle.

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Compared to the news-heavy month of May 2020 (CNN’s most-watched May ever), the network was down by -45% in average total prime time audience, and -53% of its prime-time demo audience. In total day, the network fell by -44% in average total viewers and -50% in the total day demo.

Fox News, of course, continued to dominate all of cable, even though its total viewers also declined slightly (off three percent).

Fox News ruled the prime-time programming slots with four of the five top-rated TV shows in cable news: “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (1), “Hannity” (2), “The Five” (3), and “The Ingraham Angle” (5).

The most-viewed cable stations rank as Fox News, MSNBC, ESPN, TNT, and HGTV in fifth place. CNN ranked sixth.

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About the Author:
Warner Todd Huston has been writing editorials and news since 2001 but started his writing career penning articles about U.S. history back in the early 1990s. Huston has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and several local Chicago News programs to discuss the issues of the day. Additionally, he is a regular guest on radio programs from coast to coast. Huston has also been a Breitbart News contributor since 2009. Warner works out of the Chicago area, a place he calls a "target rich environment" for political news.




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