In the latest example of just how bad things are for CNN, the network that pushed all in on opposing former President Donald Trump was just beaten by Newsmax TV in primetime viewers.
Of course, the extenuating circumstance here is Trump himself, yet CNN’s paltry viewership has to be a cause of concern for Discovery, which merged with WarnerMedia last month and took control of the cable news network the former president frequently labeled “fake news.”
On Friday evening, Newsmax aired Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania and beat out CNN in terms of total viewers across prime time, averaging 738,000 total viewers between 8 and 10 p.m., which lifted the network’s total average across prime time to 579,000 viewers, according to Mediaite.
At the same time, CNN averaged a total of 545,000 prime time viewers. Things are so bad at the network that it highest-rated prime time program, “Anderson Cooper 360,” didn’t even approach 1 million viewers, drawing just 645,000 sets of eyeballs total.
The numbers also suggest that Trump’s popularity is showing no signs of waning as the country draws ever close to the 2024 presidential election.
As for rival Fox News, the Trump rally did not have much of an impact on viewers.
“While Newsmax drew in a large audience to see Trump speak, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson maintained his audience at 8 p.m., bringing in 2.85 million total viewers. Carlson’s show ranked as the second-highest watched program in all of cable news for the day, just behind Fox News’ The Five, which brought in 3.15 million total viewers,” Mediaite reported. “Fox News’ decision not to air Trump’s rallies has made headlines before and raised a few eyebrows as some observers questioned whether or not the move indicated a break with Trump.”
The remarkable thing here continuing to be the success of “The Five,” as the shows popularity holds strong.
Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy told The Washington Post earlier in the year that he sees Trump rallies as “a significant news event” that is “worthy of coverage.”
The network said in an article published Monday that it “made history Friday night, beating competitor CNN in key prime-time ratings,” before taking note of a some factors at play here.
“Newsmax is carried in 20 million less homes than CNN, giving it proportionately a much higher rating than its competitor,” the article explained. “The Nielsen numbers do not include Newsmax’s massive OTT streaming audience, which the network estimates often almost doubles the Nielsen rating during Trump rally coverage and other programming.”
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