Maybe we shouldn’t fret too much about CNN’s bias. . .
. . . since nobody seems to be watching.
CNN Hits Lowest Primetime Demo Rating at 9 PM In 15 Years:
Last night was a typical, boring Tuesday, with little earth-shattering news to drive TV viewers to cable news. It was also May sweeps, with the season finale of “NCIS: LA,” “America’s Got Talent” on NBC and “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC drawing an astonishing 39 million viewers between them at 9 PM.
Unfortunately for CNN, “Piers Morgan Tonight” was the apparent victim of the busy night, drawing only 39,000 viewers 25-54 at 9 PM. To say those ratings are anomalous would be something of an understatement. That is the lowest 9 PM weekday demo rating for CNN since at least 1997. While the ratings were an outlier, it was a fairly normal edition of “PMT,” with Morgan hosting. Guests included Jane Lynch and “The man with the golden voice” Ted Williams.
“Like General Motors during the late 1970s,” observes Ed Driscoll, commenting on the “news” netwwork’s lousy numbers,
CNN is attempting to sell an obsolete paradigm to an American public that knows better — viewers on both side of the aisle have made it clear that they want their news and opinion delivered by personalities whose opinions are known to them. That’s why Fox has prospered, and why MSNBC has bettered CNN in the ratings — whatever you think of O’Reilly and Hannity on the right, and Maddow and Al Sharpton on the left, you know what their worldview is, and can chose accordingly.
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Shorter Ed Driscoll: The model of spewing liberal propaganda while claiming to be objective doesn’t work any more; the public is onto you.
Comment by V the K — May 17, 2012 @ 6:01 am - May 17, 2012
Cable news networks at 9:00 are a partisan comedy hour.
Piers Morgan, Rachel Maddow, Sean Hannity, all hyper-partisians with cheap stories, biased questions.
Seriously these shows are talk radio with a camera.
Comment by Geena — May 17, 2012 @ 9:35 am - May 17, 2012
CNN’s sinking ratings is fun to watch. I haven’t watched CNN in years myself…
Comment by Sebastian Shaw — May 17, 2012 @ 11:00 am - May 17, 2012
The difference between Hannity and Madcow is that Hannity invites people from the other side to debate on his show. Hannity’s debate skills suck, but at least he lets other views be presented.
Also, Hannity is prettier.
Comment by V the K — May 17, 2012 @ 12:07 pm - May 17, 2012
Hah! Now that’s funny, V the K.
Comment by Richard Bell — May 17, 2012 @ 12:41 pm - May 17, 2012
Thirty-nine-thousand viewers? That doesn’t count all the poor bastards trapped in airport terminals, bus stations and health club cardio-rooms as the captive audience….
Comment by Ted B. (Charging Rhino) — May 17, 2012 @ 1:03 pm - May 17, 2012
>Hannity invites people from the other side to debate on his show
True, he closes the show with a panel. Best segment.
Comment by Geena — May 17, 2012 @ 2:37 pm - May 17, 2012
What I don’t get is why Liberals don’t support their own propaganda stations? They blame conservatives for not watching them. It’s like the Chevy Volt situation. Rush Limbaugh is critical of the Volt. The Volt tanks in sales. The Green supporters blame Rush. I wonder why the Green Liberals don’t buy more Volts? It’s not like the Liberals are not rich. Based on sales alone, more than a few Liberal millionaires can buy them to bring up the sales numbers. We should blame the Liberals for not buying their own crap, but that would be too obvious.
Comment by anon23532 — May 17, 2012 @ 2:51 pm - May 17, 2012
I guess dentist offices & doctors turn off their television when Piers Morgan is on?
Comment by Sebastian Shaw — May 17, 2012 @ 2:57 pm - May 17, 2012
Dan…. my first reaction to your post was:
HAHAHAHAHA!
Comment by Bruce (GayPatriot) — May 17, 2012 @ 3:17 pm - May 17, 2012
39,000 viewers — isn’t that less than Obama had at his empty-seat rally in Ohio a couple weeks ago?
Comment by Bruce (GayPatriot) — May 17, 2012 @ 3:18 pm - May 17, 2012
I don’t know why. They could save a fortune on anesthesia.
Comment by Bastiat Fan — May 17, 2012 @ 3:47 pm - May 17, 2012
It’s harder and harder for people to buy into the old assumption that the news anchor was some kind of Omniscient Narrator without an agenda.
Comment by EssEm — May 17, 2012 @ 4:27 pm - May 17, 2012
I kind of like CNN the way it is. Their ratings are low because they are not over-pandering to either side of the political fence, thus neither side of the parisan crowd feels driven to watch them. Yes, they do have a liberal bent, but it’s not obnoxious like MSNBC, or FOX’s Conservative leanings.
PS. They do need to get rid of Piers Morgan. His show is especially dreadful.
Comment by sonicfrog — May 17, 2012 @ 8:53 pm - May 17, 2012
If being more or less “neutral” means the same as tanking, then honest news reporting is D-E-A-D.
CNN is no more “neutral” than the NYT. They are not red meat enough for the Progressives and too odious for moderates who have fully caught their scent. Conservatives only tune in to laugh.
Comment by heliotrope — May 18, 2012 @ 9:04 am - May 18, 2012
I stopped watching CNN once Style With Elsa Klench was cancelled. That was the best show on the network.
Comment by Scherie — May 18, 2012 @ 11:48 pm - May 18, 2012
[...] the small size of CNN’s primetime audience, I wondered last week whether we should fret too much about the “news” network’s bias. Last night and again this afternoon, while catching CNN during the cardio portion of my workout, [...]
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