It’s the network most frequently referenced by President Trump as “fake news,” and as with his Republican primary opponents, the label may have something to do with its decline in popularity.
The RedState blog noted Friday that CNN’s town hall with Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke on Tuesday averaged a paltry 714,000 total viewers and 194,000 in the key 25-54 demo.
That means it came in third for both categories during 10-11:15 p.m. Eastern Time hour, according to early Nielsen Media Research.
RedState said it’s hard to describe awful it is to get only 194,000 in the key demo, with the Food Network routinely beating that number.
But CNN has much bigger problems, with a major ratings collapse affecting all of its programming.
In total day viewers last week, reported Breitbart’s John Nolte, CNN plummeted 34 percent. In prime time viewers, the network was down 26 percent.
Even worse, throughout all of last week, CNN came in 16th, averaging only 693,000 total prime time viewers.
RedState pointed out Fox News has nearly four times the viewership during prime time.
In January 2017, after BuzzFeed leaked the now thoroughly debunked anti-Trump dossier that fueled the Russia investigation, CNN White House reported Jim Acosta continually tried to interrupt the then president-elect at a news conference.
Acosta insisted on being allowed to answer a question because Trump “had been attacking” it.
“No,” Trump said. “Your organization is terrible.”
Acosta persisted.
“Don’t be rude,” Trump said. “No, I’m not going to give you a question. You’re fake news.”
Acosta, amid scattered applause and some “oooohs,” replied, “Mr. President-elect, that’s not appropriate.”
