NEW YORK, Oct 27 — CNN, which created the all-news cable network almost 30 years ago, hit a new competitive low with its prime-time programmes in October, with three of its four programmes between 7 and 11pm finishing fourth and last among the cable news networks.
It was the first time that the programmes had ever performed that poorly against their news network competitors. October was also the third month in the last year that CNN as a network finished fourth behind the three other cable news networks in prime time with the audience that the networks rely on for advertising sales.
CNN had a strong performance in the election year of 2008, but the channel’s prime-time numbers are down 22 percent from 2007.
The development comes at a time when the commercial environment has become challenging for nearly all news organisations.
In an era when the relationship between the White House and Fox News is making headlines, and when the ideological rivalry between MSNBC on the left and Fox News on the right is commanding the spotlight, CNN has little from a news angle to stir consistent interest from viewers.
As a consequence, CNN’s position in prime-time programming, the most profitable area of the cable news business, has been undermined by the strength of competing channels that focus largely on opinion-based programmes during those hours.
CNN itself is responsible for one of those competitors, having installed some popular opinionated hosts at its sister network HLN, formerly Headline News, which has emerged in recent months as a stronger performer in prime time than CNN itself.
In October, CNN’s programmes were behind not only Fox and MSNBC, but HLN as well. HLN relies on hosts like Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell.
Perhaps most alarming for CNN was the performance of Anderson Cooper, who has become the signature host for the network in prime time. Cooper, who as recently as 2008 was a ratings leader at 10 p.m., finished fourth and last at 10pm in October. He trailed not only the leader, Greta Van Susteren, on Fox, but Keith Olbermann on MSNBC and Grace on HLN, despite the fact that both those shows were repeats of programmes that had been broadcast at 8pm.
In an interview in March, Jon Klein, the president of CNN’s domestic networks, said that Cooper’s programme was an hour “where we could win.”
Klein was travelling and unavailable for comment. Other CNN executives said that Cooper’s decline was largely because of a slower news period and that Klein had meant Cooper, whose show is focused on news coverage and not opinion, could win when news was driving viewers to his programme.
The executives also argued that CNN still easily beat MSNBC (though it continues to trail Fox News badly) in terms of total viewers over the full day of programming.
No CNN executive would say anything else on the record, saying that Klein would speak for the network in the future.
Fox dominates the news channel ratings in prime time, with its opinion-based programmes, hosted by Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, at the top. But its newscasts are also far ahead of CNN programmes. Its 7pm show, anchored by Shepard Smith, regarded as a non-ideological programme, dwarfs every CNN show in prime time.
In October, Smith averaged 465,000 viewers among the 25- to 54-year-old audience that news sells to advertisers. Lou Dobbs on CNN was fourth in the hour, with 162,000, edged by Velez-Mitchell on HLN with 166,000. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and “Hardball” was second with 179,000 viewers.
At 10pm, Cooper had 211,000 viewers, to 223,000 for Olbermann’s repeat. Van Susteren had 538,000 viewers, and Grace averaged 222,000.
For the month, CNN averaged 202,000 viewers, ages 25 to 54. That was far behind the dominant leader, Fox, which averaged 689,000. But it also trailed MSNBC which had 250,000 viewers in that group and HLN, which had 221,000 viewers.
The only CNN programme from 7 to 10 p.m. that did not finish last was Larry King, who was third. Hannity was first and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC second.
CNN’s performance was worst in the 8pm hour. O’Reilly on Fox News continued his long dominance with the biggest numbers of any host, 881,000 viewers. Olbermann, with his first-run programme was second with 295,000. Close behind was the first edition of Grace’s show with 269,000. Campbell Brown on CNN trailed, with only 162,000.
CNN defended its performance by noting that it still had higher ratings than MSNBC when each hour of the day was measured. Barbara Levin, a CNN spokeswoman, issued a statement yesterday, saying: “We couldn’t be more pleased that both our networks are now topping MSNBC in total day and that CNN.com leads all TV news competitors on the Web. As we have said for years, we measure our audience across all CNN worldwide platforms and throughout the day, not just prime time. CNN provides quality journalism and our ratings reflect the news environment more than opinion programming does.” — NYT
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