CNN’s show “The Lead with Jake Tapper” is in a major funk, having lost three-fourths of its audience since a viewership surge in January.
Whereas Tapper’s show had 2.8 million viewers in the month of January, it raked in an abysmally low 706,000 from May 23 to June 23. In terms of the second quarter, the host has experienced about a 50 percent decrease in viewership compared to quarter one.
Viewership has been universally down for cable news channels since January when both the Capitol riot and inauguration of President Joe Biden took place, but CNN fared worse than others. Nielson Media Research ratings from May show CNN as a whole forfeited 67 percent of its viewers since January. The news is not shocking given how the network has relied on pedaling in President Donald Trump fear-porn, discussing him non-stop for four years.
Fox News lost only 12 percent of its viewership between January and May, which proved to be a much more difficult period for CNN. The left-leaning outlet coughed up 49 percent of its total viewers during this time.
In terms of the key news demographic of those aged 25 to 54, Tapper’s June show lost 79 percent of his January audience. Nonetheless, as-is well-documented, those in liberal media fail upwards. CNN gave Tapper an additional segment hour in April. “The Lead” has been pounced by Fox News’ “The Five” by 229 percent.
It has generally been a struggle for the network, which media pundits such as Outkick’s Bobby Burack attribute to an identity crisis in the post-Trump presidency. CNN’s “New Day” has notably faced challenges, having re-launched in February for the sixth time in eight years.
CNN has persisted in a Trump infatuation for the past four years and it is unclear whether the outlet will be able to effectively re-brand itself in the Biden era.
