CNN Ratings In The Basement Even With Ongoing War Coverage – ‘Complete And Well-Deserved Collapse’

The journalist Glenn Greenwald poked fun at CNN’s “complete and well-deserved collapse” after newly-released ratings show the network trailing their competition by substantial amounts even as they cover a significant war that is ongoing in the Middle East.

On Monday, CNN managed to pull in just 619,000 viewers, well behind the 2 million+ who flocked to Fox News coverage and 1.7 million who opted to watch MSNBC.

Even more troubling are their numbers for the 25-54 age demographic that is coveted by advertisers.

The latest Nielsen figures show CNN with 134,750 viewers in that demographic, compared to 260,375 for Fox and 157,750 for MSNBC.

Cable News Ratings Mon Nov 13

Average Viewers & Share
Total
1⃣@FoxNews 2,042,125
2⃣@MSNBC 1,694,750
3⃣@CNN 619,000

Demo
1⃣Fox News 260,375
2⃣MSNBC 157,750
3⃣CNN 134,750 pic.twitter.com/AOgW1itdx8

— RoadMN ? (@RoadMN) November 15, 2023

RELATED: CNN Cans CEO Chris Licht Less Than One Month After Employees Threw a Tantrum Over Trump Town Hall

Ratings Collapse At CNN Just Keeps Going

There are a couple of ways one could look at these ratings for CNN. One, maybe former CEO Chris Licht wasn’t the problem at the network. Or two, maybe he was so bad that they simply can’t stop the bleeding right now.

Either way, there is only one conclusion to be drawn from an overall standpoint: things are really bad at CNN.

Greenwald points out that the network that put itself on the map with its 24-hour coverage of the Persian Gulf War is no longer a draw even with an ongoing war between Israel and Hamas terrorists to cover.

“CNN can’t get more than 100k people under 55 to watch *in prime time* as a major war is underway in which Americans have substantial interest,” he opined on the X social media platform.

“They can’t even get 500,000 total to watch in prime-time,” he continued. “Just a complete and well-deserved collapse despite huge corporate promotion.”

CNN can’t get more than 100k people under 55 to watch *in prime time* as a major war is underway in which Americans have substantial interest.

They can’t even get 500,000 total to watch in prime-time. Just a complete and well-deserved collapse despite huge corporate promotion: https://t.co/6yjsmjl201

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 15, 2023

RELATED: Time to Put CNN on Suicide Watch: Matt Gaetz Gets Higher Ratings as a Guest Host on Newsmax

Maybe They Should Give Trump A Call

The freefall is a trend at this point.

After an initial bump from a controversial town hall with former President Donald Trump, CNN saw their numbers continuously plummet, so far so that at one point they had sunk below the ratings of the much smaller Newsmax network.

Think about that for a minute, because it’s likely CNN certainly does: the last time the network was relevant from a rating aspect was when they allowed Trump a platform to speak to the American people.

And the network’s own employees had a meltdown over the town hall. Biting the hand that feeds, some would say.

CNN had its best ratings in years because Donald Trump did a Townhall. This is why CNN is trying to explain it away. They hate the fact that they had five times their normal readings with a man they’ve tried to deny so badly. @cnn ⁦@NEWSMAX⁩ ⁦@NewsmaxRadio⁩ ⁦ pic.twitter.com/CroZ4mbPkm

— Rob Carson Show (@RobCarson) May 12, 2023

Former CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter, in an interview to promote a new book, suggested that nobody at his former network is biased when it comes to their reporting.

“Do you think that there are any people on CNN who are overtly biased?” he was asked.

“I really, truly don’t, and they fired me! And I’m telling you, I really, truly don’t,” he replied.

Brian Stelter is disingenuous when asked who’s the most partisan host on MSNBC and CNN. He volunteered Joy Reid, but said “partisan” was the wrong word, it’s a “perspective,” not a bias. What’s the difference? And then he denied there’s an opinion host on CNN.

Come. On. pic.twitter.com/lqqGXxKaJH

— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) November 16, 2023

Stelter was fired as part of a revamp in which Licht attempted to steer the network back to producing actual journalism.

Stelter helped cover up the Hunter Biden laptop scandal at CNN just before the 2020 presidential election, saying that “for all we know, these emails were made up” and “this is a classic example of the right-wing media machine.”

“This is a classic example of the right-wing media machine,” @brianstelter says. “Fox and Trump have this in common: They want you to stay mad and stay tuned.” pic.twitter.com/HNoaTF6IQt

— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) October 18, 2020

Straight Arrow News reports that CNN, contrary to Stelter’s assessment, “is left-leaning” with MSNBC being “a little bit more” biased to the left. Fox, of course, is considered right-leaning.

To say nobody on CNN is biased is a bit silly, but then one has to consider the fact that some of their most obvious offenders – Stelter, Chris Cuomo, and Don Lemon – have all been fired.