CNN Does Not Have a Single Show In the Top 20 for Cable News

In the Donald Trump era, CNN’s ratings have not been made great again. In fact, their ratings have tanked. While the network may be popular in the nation’s airports, it doesn’t enjoy the same popularity when people have a choice to tune in. The results for their third quarter ratings are in – and they have CNN’s executives wishing they were Fox News. According to Breitbart, “In a list of the top 20 cable news shows from the third quarter of 2018, there is not a single CNN program—the top 20 is all Fox News and MSNBC shows.” While MSNBC did have shows in the top 20 list, they were still dwarfed by Fox News. Laura Ingraham boasts more total viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined in prime time.

Fox News enjoyed their 67th straight quarter of being the most viewed cable network. Most notable from the data was a week last year in which CNN experienced a sudden 41% drop in their daytime ratings (relative to the year before). Donald Trump Jr. had already seized on that fact and mocked the network over it last month:

Can you think of a single reason to tune into CNN?

CNN is known for milking stories, whether it be their endless coverage of the Ebola outbreak in 2014, or missing Malaysian flight 370 that same year. Donald Trump has been the network’s story du jour since 2015, to much less effect. As we’ve reported on previously, well over 90% of the media’s coverage of Trump is negative. The market for criticizing Trump is over-saturated, and it’s size is far out of proportion to actual opposition to the Trump presidency. How much Michael Avenatti can CNN’s audience possibly endure? Those facts combined with CNN’s godawful analysis and unwatchable 20-person-panel discussions has caused their ratings to crater.

And you know what’s even sadder? Without the Trump presidency to draw their more hysterical viewers in, CNN’s ratings would probably be even worse!

By Matt

Matt is the co-founder of Unbiased America and a freelance writer specializing in economics and politics. He’s been published... More about Matt

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