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Jesse Watters’ debut show trounced on CNN-Acosta’s ‘Democracy in Peril’ special

January 26, 2022 | | Print Article

Fox News continues to dominate cable news ratings and as they expand their super-star lineup of shows, CNN’s one-trick-pony programming is proving to be quite the drag.

The premiere of Jesse Watters’ eponymous show Jesse Watters Primetime attracted a massive 3.8 million total average viewers, with 537,000 of those being in the key 25-54 age group. This places him in second place, just behind another Fox program, The Five. The maiden show doubled the audience from the same day last year, which is a spectacular showing for the network.

On the other hand, Jim Acosta’s primetime special, Democracy in Peril, pulled in a measly 511,000 total average viewers, which means Watters pulled 3.3 million more viewers. This is a massive difference.

Viewership raised slightly when Acosta’s special was over and Don Lemon came on, but it was still nowhere near enough to compete with Fox’s programming.

Perhaps Watters’ booming success can be attributed to the promise he made to his viewers.

“The American people have run out of patience, and we’re tired of being disrespected,” he confidently declared at the opening of his show.

Ignorant, greedy leaders sold out our factories and pride to the Chinese Communists for unpatriotic profits. Deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan; wars shamefully mismanaged took a physical and mental toll. We were oversaturated with highly addictive painkillers, while Wall Street blew up the economy and escaped with golden parachutes instead of prison stripes,” he continued.

“[T]he American people have been disrespected for far too long. And that stops tonight. We’ll be exposing the scoundrels, celebrating the patriots, and making sure we’re respected,” he said. “We’re in a republic and we give our representatives power to represent us, not themselves. Every night, we’ll remind them they work for us,” Watters promised the audience.

Meanwhile, the doom-and-gloom of the Democracy in Peril special must have turned people off. Acosta’s first guest, Democratic operative Marc Elias, predicted that “we are one, maybe two, elections cycles away from a real constitutional crisis.”

Instead of pushing back or asking for solid evidence, Acosta threw him another softball. “What’s the impact on our democracy? I mean, Marc, do you have enough lawyers on your team to handle that kind of scenario?”

The special meandered through a variety of CNN’s favorite topics, including Donald Trump and January 6. Judging by the steep disparity between the special and Watters’ premiere, it would appear that those subjects aren’t close to viewers’ hearts.

Twitter agreed:

Sierra Marlee
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