Cable news is in freefall
Cable news is cratering. Per Deadline.com, The ratings for all of the three major cable news networks are dipping lower and lower. This includes Fox Non-news. Fox has seen a dip in its prime time viewership of about 35% lower than last year at this time. They are down 20% for their daytime ratings as well.
MSNBC is also down with a decline of 59% for its prime time viewership.
But CNN is at the top of the list with wildly flailing ratings.
CNN’s prime time ratings are down a whopping 77%. In the 25-54 Demographic, CNN’s at a stunning 148,000. None of this should be a surprise, although the numbers are even worse than expected. All three of the stations have major problems.
Although many believe it is a simple issue of Trump not being in office anymore and folks losing interest, I think the problem is more significant than that.
These networks have become frantic in recent months, trying anything and everything in attempts to gin up ratings. Many pundits have become even more vicious and vulgar in their presentation, and it is no wonder people are becoming sick of it.
I believe if the networks would get back to simply reporting the news, the ratings might again begin to climb.
Think about it. Non-stories are becoming all the rage. Allow me to back that up with this beauty from CNN. It is a headline on their website about President Biden. This headline is: “A gravelly voiced President Biden says he has a cold.”
Would you click on that? I have no idea what the story is about, nor do I care. With a headline like that, I have no desire to read it. I imagine others feel the same. The motivation of Fox is obvious. They lost a boatload of viewers who thought they were not “Trumpian enough.”
And these viewers were upset that the network tried to do the right thing for once in their miserable lives and called Arizona for Biden on election night. I hope that Cable News goes back to what they once were, many moons ago. I, however, am not optimistic.