CNN Records Lowest Ratings Week in 9 Years

People walk by the world headquarters for the Cable News Network (CNN) in Atlanta, Ga., on March 15, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

CNN is ending January on a low note—the lowest the news network has seen in nine years, to be exact.

According to The Wrap, for the week of Jan. 16 through Jan. 22, Nielsen ratings showed CNN averaged just 444,000 primetime viewers, with 93,000 in the crucial 25–54 age demographic. For daytime programming, the network averaged 417,000 viewers, with 80,000 in the target demographic.

Comparatively, for the same week, Fox News averaged 2 million primetime viewers and 1.4 million in the daytime, while MSNBC garnered 943,000 and 629,000, respectively.

The week marked the first time since May 2014 that CNN failed to reach an average of 450,000 viewers.

To add insult to injury, the network’s new morning show, “CNN This Morning,” also had its worst week since the program’s Nov. 1, 2022, launch, averaging just 331,000 viewers.

The revamped morning program, headed up by former primetime host Don Lemon and cohosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, was just one of CEO Chris Licht’s attempts to shift the network back toward the center of the political spectrum.

Additionally, Licht vowed in November 2022 that, going forward, CNN would not allow former President Donald Trump to “consume the news cycle” as the network had in the past, but would “be very clear and take everything on a case-by-case basis about what level of coverage it should be.”

However, Licht noted in December 2022 that those efforts had made him a target for those on the political left.

“The uninformed vitriol, especially from the left, has been stunning,” he told The New York Times. “Which proves my point: So much of what passes for news is name-calling, half-truths, and desperation.”

Licht took the helm at CNN in May 2022 after former President Jeff Zucker resigned that February, citing a previously undisclosed affair with a colleague. Since then, the CEO has hit a number of obstacles in his attempts to turn the embattled network around, including the failure of the short-lived CNN+ streaming service and layoffs that affected hundreds of staffers.

Licht addressed the turbulence in a November 2022 memo to employees, noting that there has been “widespread concern over the global economic outlook” and that “we must factor that risk into our long-term planning.”

“All this together will mean noticeable change to this organization,” Licht continued in the memo. “That, by definition, is unsettling. These changes will not be easy because they will affect people, budgets, and projects.”

Licht ended the memo on a positive note, however, adding, “When we emerge on the other side, CNN will be a stronger, more nimble organization, ready to weather whatever the global economy throws at us and to grow into the future.”