Chris Licht perhaps by no means stood an opportunity at CNN, however he certain didn’t do himself any favors both.
Licht was handpicked by Warner Bros. Discovery President & CEO David Zaslav to show CNN round. Collectively, they instantly cut bait on the CNN+ disaster — an excellent name — and set about returning the linear cable information channel to its former glory. Specializing in breaking information, not enjoying politics, and reporting the info down the center was supposed to repair the issue of poor TV ratings. It decidedly didn’t accomplish that, and Licht was unceremoniously fired on Wednesday, simply 13 months into the very-unfinished job.
To be truthful to Licht, he inherited a loser. Pre-Licht, CNN was averaging 753,000 primetime (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.) viewers of any age, based on 4/26/21-1/30/22 (a 12 months earlier than Licht’s begin to the tip of Jeff Zucker’s tenure) Nielsen knowledge made obtainable to IndieWire; 171,000 of them got here from the important thing 25-54 demographic, which is the favored age vary for advertisers on information programming. That was already far worse general than chief competitor MSNBC (1.255 million complete viewers), although CNN was 14,000 viewers forward within the demo. That’s the one metric by which CNN, nonetheless hanging on to that one slight edge over MSNBC for expensive life, shouldn’t be in final place among the many Large 3 cable information channels.
Below Licht (4/25/22-6/05/23), CNN fell to 628,000 primetime viewers (-16.6 %); of that common, 139,000 (-18.7 %) individuals tuning in have been between 25 and 54.
Over the identical time interval, MSNBC declined simply 4.8 % general; its key-demo viewers dropped exhausting, nonetheless, by 21 %. Meaning MSNBC misplaced some viewers on a internet foundation, however to a bigger diploma its (comparatively) younger viewers was changed by (comparatively) older viewers. Fox has an analogous story — and the first-place podium.
This complete time, the conservative Fox Information Channel has simply been in an entire ‘nother stratosphere than its liberal counterparts. B.L., “earlier than Licht,” Fox Information averaged 2.310 million primetime viewers, greater than 3x CNN.
Like MSNBC (and that is most likely the solely factor Fox and MSNBC have in frequent), Fox’s primetime viewers declined single digits (-9 %) over the previous 12 months or so, however its demo drop was important (-24.5 %). Hey, all people will get outdated. Or not less than, the younger viewers go to digital.
It’s not only a primetime-ratings drawback CNN has struggled with: these basic 1, 2, 3 standings above stay the identical when taking all 24 hours of a given day’s programming into consideration. In summation, 24/7, CNN was dropping — and the losses solely received worse below Licht.
After all, it wasn’t solely the Nielsen numbers that sunk the short-lived regime. There was additionally a parade’s price of missteps in his 13-month tenure. A number of: the morning show debacle, what many thought of to be the mishandling of Don Lemon’s firing, and the disastrous Donald Trump town hall.
Final week’s all-access Licht profile in The Atlantic seems to have been the nail within the coffin, although the handwriting had been on the wall for some time. In everlasting marker.
