NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
CNN incoming boss Chris Licht has many challenges as he prepares to take over the besieged network, but a former producer believes that clearing the ratings-challenged lineup in prime time will be one of the biggest tasks.
“The new leadership has a big task to fix CNN in prime time. The first logical step is to stop Don Lemon and end the nonsense. This shame lasted too long. He will have to turn to CNN for a replacement because of their terribly weak bench, “a longtime media insider and former CNN producer told Fox News Digital.
CNN STARTS NEW PRESIDENT, CURRENT LATE SHOW EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TO REPLACE JEFF ZUCKER
Jeff Zucker’s deputy, Chris Licht, has a long way to go when it comes to fixing CNN’s prime time, said a former network producer.
(Mike Coppola / Getty Images)
Licht, who is currently a CBS showrunner of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and executive vice president of ViacomCBS, is expected to be appointed CNN chairman and CEO sometime around May 1 after the upcoming merger between Discovery and CNN’s parent WarnerMedia become official. The powerful Licht has already indicated that he will focus heavily on the news, unlike the left-wing programming of public opinion that dominated the web under her previous regime. In a recent note to future colleagues, Licht suggested that change was on the horizon.
“Together we will double what works well and quickly eliminate what is not,” Licht wrote to his future team.
“I know you have a lot of questions. Perhaps the biggest is how will CNN change? The honest answer is that I still don’t know. David Zaslav gave me a simple directive: to ensure that CNN remains the world leader in NEWS as part of Warner Bros. Discovery, ”Licht continued in a note that marked the word” news “in capital letters.
The note, sent Monday, came just a day before ratings in February showed it would be difficult to describe CNN’s prime time lineup as “working well.”
CNN’s prime time presenters currently consist only of Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon, after the network’s biggest star Chris Cuomo was fired last year. The network experimented with Briana Kaylar, Jim Acosta and Michael Smerkonish in the old time interval of Cuomo from 21:00, but none of them resonated with the audience. CNN also gave Cooper and Lehmann an extra hour to fill Cuomo’s shoes on different occasions since the Cuomo Prime Time namesake was shown at the door, but viewers also didn’t flock to the net for more of them.
CNN AND THE TERRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD YEAR
Chris Licht, who is currently the CBS showrunner of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and executive vice president of ViacomCBS, is expected to be appointed chairman and CEO of CNN sometime around May 1. (Photo by Rich Fury / Getty Images)
CNN has an average of only 715,000 viewers from 8pm to 11pm in 2022 to February 28, a drop of 105% of MSNBC’s average prime time audience of 1.2 million. Over the same period, Fox News garnered an average of 2.4 million viewers in prime time to crush CNN with a staggering 241%, despite significant news about COVID, Russia, and domestic issues unfolding on a daily basis.
CNN’s prime time lineup attracted a smaller audience than Fox News, MSNBC, USA, HGTV, TNT, ESPN, Hallmark, INSP, History and TLC in February.
CNN’s most-watched show last month was “Anderson Cooper 360,” which averaged 816,000 viewers as the 23rd cable news program. CNN’s most popular show lost to seven different MSNBC programs and 15 Fox News broadcasts.
“Don Lemon Tonight” drew an average of 689,000 viewers to finish as a program № 34 in cable news, attracting a smaller audience than the many morning and daytime offers, despite the pink prime time.
CNN is currently loaded with left-wing leaders like Lemon, which was part of former boss Jeff Zucker’s program strategy against Trump. However, the net crashed during the Biden era.
CNN: DÉJÀ VU FOR TEMPORARY BOSS AMY ENTELIS AFTER MONITORING ABC NEWS ‘”TOXIC” WORKPLACE FOR YEARS
Don Lemmon, seen here with Brooke Baldwin and Jeff Zucker, is struggling to attract viewers. (Photo by Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for CNN)
(Photo by Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for CNN)
CNN has averaged just 916,000 prime time viewers since Biden took office, compared to 2.4 million for Fox News and 1.4 million for MSNBC. The network relies heavily on the destruction of conservatives, calling for censorship of illiberal voices like Joe Rogan and mocking left-wing ideology after losing the ability to rely on Trump for appropriateness.
A media insider and former CNN producer who has watched Licht overhaul MSNBC over the years by co-creating “Morning Joe” and then creating “CBS This Morning” before launching “The Late Show”, predicts that in CNN’s prime time, struggling are not the only employees in trouble.
“Licht did a rather brutal purge of producers when he took over the CBS morning show. He cleaned the house of senior staff. It was a borderline sadistic way it was done,” an insider added. “I would expect such a cleaning of the home of executives loyal to Zucker on CNN. And anyone who is too closely connected to CNN + or Brian Stelter’s unit. “
CNN +, an upcoming streaming service, was known as Zucker’s pet project. The network’s media reporter, Brian Stelter, is known to be a Zucker loyalist who was manually selected by a former CNN friend to join the network and was often used as a quasi-speaker. Stelter was even rewarded with a daily show on CNN +, although he regularly failed to attract significant audiences in the regular version of CNN.
CNN SAGA: CUOMO-GOLLUST-ZUCKER SCANDAL, CAUSING A LEGAL CONFUSION THAT DISCOVERY WOULD BE WISE TO AVOID, EXPERTS SAY
CNN incoming boss Chris Licht created “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and then created “CBS This Morning” before releasing “The Late Show”. (Photo by Fraser Harrison / Getty Images)
(Photo by Fraser Harrison / Getty Images)
DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall believes that “CNN should seriously consider a complete overhaul” of its lineup in prime time.
“Prime-time shows have been performing poorly for some time, and the great focus on opinion seems to contradict Licht’s supposed renewed focus on more persistent journalism. If the strategy is to eliminate what doesn’t work, then prime time should be on … make a list, “McCall told Fox News Digital.
“Anderson Cooper is respected in journalism, but his program has been around for some time and is still struggling to generate solid numbers. The world of cable news has changed, but it is clear that CNN was a stronger force when it did more serious journalism and balanced analysis, “McCall added.” It will take some time to return to this framework. CNN will have to convince potential viewers that it is serious to redirect. It may also take some cleaning of the house to unleash the culture of group thinking in defining the news agenda. “
McCall said America “needs an improved CNN” and it is up to Licht to ensure that the network regains its credibility.
“The small fixes around the edges won’t bring back many regular Americans who have viewed CNN as an activist journalism organization in recent years,” he said.
Licht declined to comment.
Outkick media columnist Bobby Burak, a frequent critic of CNN, recently wrote that Licht’s goal is to “wake up” CNN, which coincides with the boss’s new focus on NEWS.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
“CNN hosts are outraged students without friends who use their platform to pour misery on anyone who wants to listen. Except no one listens anymore,” Burak wrote, noting that the network has tried to make stars out of outspoken liberals such as Acosta instead of respected journalists such as international correspondent Clarissa Ward.
“To restore CNN’s reputation as a reliable news agency, Licht will have to focus on firing hated fans on the air, not on hiring and promoting respected journalists. And that’s the problem, “he added. “Voices and stories that go viral paint the image of the web. CNN’s problem is not the lack of reliable journalists, but the promotion of left-wing fraudsters who are neither bright nor impressive. “
Fox News and Outkick share ownership.