CNN lost nearly half of its viewers in just one year as major cable news networks struggled in ratings, Nielsen Media Research ratings released Tuesday showed.
In June of 2021, CNN had an average of 580,000 total daily viewers – a drop of 49% compared to June of 2020. The network also lost 59% of its viewers in the critical 25 – 54 age demographic, with an average of 133,000 total day viewers in the demographic for the month of June.
CNN lost the most viewers out of all three major news networks. MSNBC had the second-largest drop in viewership and lost 37% of its total audience compared to June of last year. The network had an average of 763,000 total viewers in June of 2021 and 99,000 viewers in the 25 – 54 age demographic, a drop of 48%. Fox News had the largest number of viewers and the least substantial drop since last year – it lost 35% of its total viewers for an average of 1,172,000 total viewers in the month of June and had an average of 195,000 viewers in the 25 – 54 demographic, a 42% decrease since June of 2020. (RELATED: Fox News Dominates Cable News Ratings For 13th Straight Week)
Cable News Ratings Overload – Saturday June 26@FoxNews primetime continues to dominate with more viewers than @CNN & @MSNBC combined.
Thanks to:@WattersWorld @JesseBWatters @JudgeJeanine @DBongino (@BonginoReport) pic.twitter.com/AqMgaPVS1X
— RoadMN (@RoadMN) June 29, 2021
During primetime, CNN again lost the most viewers of all networks compared to June of 2020. The network had 798,000 primetime viewers in June of 2021, a 57% drop since the same month in 2020. Fox News lost the second-most viewers but still dominated in terms of total prime time viewers with 2,128,000 viewers in June, reflecting a drop of 42% from June of 2020. MSNBC lost 36% of its total prime time audience and had 1,308,000 viewers for the month of June.
From January 2021 to June 2021, CNN and MSNBC also lost a substantial part of their audience. In terms of total day viewers, CNN lost 69% of its viewers and MSNBC lost 54% of its viewers. Fox News lost just 14% of its total viewers during that same time period.
In a Tuesday statement, former President Donald Trump celebrated plummeting television ratings.
“CNN ratings are down 70%. MSDNC is also way down,” he said. “Actually, they are ALL way down. They say the news is ‘boring’ since I left D.C. Morning Joe, Joy Reid (whoever that is?), Nicole Wallace, Jake Tapper, and even Chris Wallace, at Fox, in free fall. A wonderful thing to see!”