CNN staffers, hosts, and producers are growing increasingly anxious in an era of new management and historically low ratings.
Some of the network’s top talent exploded in anger after former CNN Chief Jeff Zucker was forced to resign earlier this year after it was revealed he was having an “open secret relationship” with Allison Gollust, the Executive VP and Chief Marketing Officer for CNN Worldwide.
CNN employees held a meeting with WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar (WarnerMedia owns CNN), which included host Jake Tapper calling now-fired host Chris Cuomo “a terrorist.”
CNN’s Jim Acosta complained: “If we had not had Jeff Zucker here during the Trump administration, we probably would have been taken out,” he said. “You would have something like ‘Fox News Light’ on CNN right now, no offense.”
John Malone, a donor to former President Donald Trump who is the top shareholder of Discovery, told CNBC last year: “I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing,” adding later that he believes “the coward’s way out would be to sell” CNN, “or spin it off and then sell it.”
“I do believe good journalism could have a role in this future portfolio that Discovery-TimeWarner’s going to represent,” he added.
The network’s new corporate boss has said he wants programming that brings in “Democrats and Republicans,” but according to insiders, that’s not going to be a winning formula, the New York Post reported.
The outlet notes:
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said CNN is renewing its focus on “journalism” — signaling he wants the scandal-scarred, left-leaning network to eventually deliver straight news that also appeals to conservatives.
The CEO, whose company owns CNN, Warner Bros., HBO, Animal Planet, and TLC, told reporters at Allen & Co.’s “summer camp for billionaires” in Sun Valley, Idaho, that CNN’s new approach will pay off in the long term, even as ratings sink to historic lows.
However, a well-placed source told The Post that a big reason for the ratings decline is in part due to removing “sensational” and “delicious” details that are commonplace on cable news outlets.
The Post adds: “After half a year of weak ratings, CNN turned in one of its worst months yet. According to TV ratings agency Nielsen, CNN’s weekend ratings for the month were the lowest of the year in both the all-important 25- to 54-year-old demographic and total viewers. It also coincided with a historic low for the network on Saturday, June 18 — which saw the network dip to 57,000 total demo viewers. That Saturday was also the worst-rated since 1993, which pre-dated CNN’s top competitors Fox News and MSNBC.”
But of the top two CNN competitors, by far, Fox News is the dominant outlet.
Newly released data reveals that Fox News was the most-watched cable news network in the second quarter of this year, both in primetime and total daily viewers.
The most-watched show on Fox News in the second quarter was “The Five,” which averaged 3,299,000 to make it the top-rated cable news show.
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” came in second with 3,233,000 viewers.
“Cable news’ most-watched show hauled in an average of 3.30 million total viewers per original broadcast in Q2. Tucker Carlson Tonight took second place, averaging 3.23 million total viewers in Q2, followed by Hannity at 9 p.m. (2.73 million), Jesse Watters Primetime at 7 p.m. (2.69 million) with Special Report with Bret Baier rounding out the top five in average total viewers (2.46 million),” AdWeek reported.
“The eight most-watched shows of the quarter were all Fox News shows. MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show (which featured guest hosts for much of the quarter) came in at No. 9. with a 1.8 million total viewer average at 9 p.m.,” AdWeek added.
