CNN on track for smallest audience of viewers aged 25 to 54 since 2014: report

The hard knocks keep coming for ratings-challenged CNN, which is on pace to finish February with its smallest monthly audience among viewers aged 25 to 54 since June 2014.

Under CNN boss Chris Licht, the network has slumped with its newly-launched show “CNN This Morning,” led by Don Lemon, set to finish February with its smallest monthly audience among total viewers and 25 to 54 year old demo since it launched last November.

According Fox News, CNN shows, “Anderson Cooper 360,” “The Lead with Jake Tapper” and Wolf Blitzer’s “Situation Room” are also on pace to notch their tiniest audience this month in the critical demo. Meanwhile, John King’s “Inside Politics,” is looking to bring in its least-viewed month among the category since August 2005.

CNN did not respond to request for comment.

“CNN This Morning” has been blitzed by bad publicity thanks to Lemon, who spewed sexist comments on air and has reportedly ruffled the feathers of his co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. The show is averaging a lowly 361,000 total viewers through the first 24 days of the month.

That’s down 16% from the 430,000 CNN’s previous morning show “New Day” attracted in February of last year before it was canceled because of poor ratings. In the coveted advertiser demo, Lemon’s show reeled in just 73,000 viewers, down 13% from “New Day’s” audience.

Elsewhere, Blitzer’s “The Situation Room” and Tapper’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” are on pace to lose 40% of their demo audiences from Feb. 2022, Fox said.

Anderson Cooper’s 8 p.m. ET show is on pace to average only 137,000 demo viewers. That’s compared to Fox New’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which is on pace to average 465,000 in the demo for the same time slot, Fox reported. This marks a 38% drop in the demo audience for Cooper over the same month last year

Licht is currently scrambling to fill CNN’s coveted 9 pm ET time slot since it became vacated when disgraced anchor Chris Cuomo was fired in 2021. The news exec is getting ready to launch “CNN Primetime,” a 9 pm show that will feature a rotation of the network’s anchors, Variety recently reported.

As part of the show, Licht has been interviewing potential hosts from outside of the CNN-sphere, such as CBS’ Gayle King and former NBA all-star Charles Barkley.