Larry King and CNN Getting Clobbered in Ratings

By PopEater Staff Posted Mar 30th 2010 11:15AM

More bad news for CNN: According to the NY Times, the most trusted name in news experienced yet another ratings hiccup during the first quarter of 2010, with headline programs like 'Larry King Live' and 'Anderson Cooper 360' down about 50 percent in viewers.

'Larry King' in particular saw its worst quarter ever, averaging a measly 771,000 viewers, down from 1.34 million viewers in 2009. The long-running news program, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary in June, was even beat by HLN's 'Joy Behar Show' a whopping 21 times at 9PM.

Meanwhile, Anderson Cooper was hit by a similar, though not quite as drastic, decline in the ratings. His 10PM program was down 42 percent in viewers and almost 50 percent in the 25-to-54 demo -- a troubling sign, considering that Cooper is one of the networks most lauded and recognizable faces -- not to mention one of its highest paid. (Recently, Cooper was said to be eyeing an anchor position at CBS News, a report that was quickly shot down by CNN.)

But Cooper and King aren't the only ones suffering from bad ratings: 'Campbell Brown' was down at 8PM, as was the network's morning news program, 'American Morning,' which fell behind MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' for the first time ever, according to the report.

What these numbers mean for the future of CNN remains to be seen. But if the network is looking to improve its audience, it may want to take a page from its biggest rival, Fox News Channel. The network is coming off of its biggest quarter ever, with shows like 'Bill O'Reilly' and 'Glenn Beck' up 28 and 50 percent, respectively.

Perhaps it's time for CNN to start courting Sarah Palin.

Tags: anderson cooper, anderson cooper 360, larry king, larry king live, ratings

Comments

(89)

Tuesday 30 March

By valeskas

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It is time for Larry to retire. As a viewer I do not care for his program any longer, because his program is tired. Now Anderson Cooper I still love.

By There's Always Elvis

Thanks to Mr Don Imus Fox is the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!! We love you Iman!!!!!Please play more Elvis.. Say hi to Chris for me. She's an Elvis fan... I love ya Iman...

By Love Elvis Too!!!

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Amen to that!!! Don Imus is GREAT!!!!! Thank you Fox for giving us a true man... Got to start my day with the Iman!!!!

By CommanderBill

Fox ratings surge, CNN and MSNBC take a dive. The New York Times teeters on bankruptcy while the Wall Street Journal expands its readership. When all you present is spin and lies people vote with their feet, pocket book and viewership. No surprise there.

By ephesianman

CNN is nothing but an Obama media machine and no longer provide good journalism and that is why FoxNews is kicking butt! Thank goodness for FoxNews it is the only legitimate news source on television, the rest are nothing but the propaganda machine of Obama,and the Democratic party.

By Diesel

Lowest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

The problem is that CNN doesn't sell propaganda like Fox does. CNN is a truely a NEWS station. People love to see a train wreck. They love to see arguments. The sad life of reality is that there isn't two sides to everystory. Often times theres a right and wrong. Fox goes out of their way to defend the wrong. The Republican Partys problems are often over looked and when covered they'll say there's a problem with BOth Parties.. Its ridiculous, but I guess its entertertaining.

By rdav324

Oh Dear God NOT SARAH PALIN!!

By JL

Larry King is the king of fluff interviews. That's what makes him so appealing.

By ken

you misspelled the word appaling

By UFITTHEBILL

CNN Has been Going down The Tubes Since The Presidential Election When They Were All So Star Struck Over Obama. Now That Obama Has Turned Out To Be A Lame Duck And Is Not The Man They Thought He Was people have no trust in them. They are a bunch of Immoral Idiots. FOX NEWS IS NUMBER 1 !!!!!

By tom

larry king is a has=been and so is cnn. the left wing propoganda network. then there is cooper the looper. fruits all of them///

By Brian

"Most trusted name in news"? What a joke! FoxNews is the best news channel hands down. People are realizing that CNN is a joke.

By sondbr

The day CNN changes to be like Fox News is the day I certainly will quit watching, but I do think they need to make some changes. I'm not a fan of Campbell Brown - she'd be good in the daytime. Larry King is just getting too old and Anderson Cooper is on so late in much of the country. I don't like the guy who's on from 3-5 in the afternoon, either - liked Wolf Blitzer better. People tend to like inflammatory retoric and that's why Fox is so popular, but they have the same old talking heads over and over on all of their programming and so slanted to the right. I feel they are primarily responsible for the hyper negativeness in politics today, so it would be a shame if CNN would take that path just to get ratings.

By CHRIS

THEIR BIAS FOR THE CORRUPTION TAKING PLACE IN WASHINGTON, AND THEIR LACK OF REPORTING TRUTH AND FACTS IS WHY I TURNED THEM OFF.

By MJO

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I agree! Would love to see someone with real guts to dig into Obama's past and find out what his "real" background is. We only have rumors of him having been born in Hawaii, which can't be proven. Nobody knows him from Columbia University. Why can't this be exposed? Is there a contract out for anyone who does. Maybe by "Miss Nancy's family." She is another no network will expose as to her background as a daughter of a famous "Don." Cowards? Deliberate? ..... ? They dug around in Sarah Palin's background, as well as that of her friends and relatives to find something to ridicule her with. Normally, a candidate is scrutinized as to whether the grand-newphew's fiance's best friend's brother-in-law might have had an outstanding speeding ticket. Something as trivial as an aunt who is an illegal alien does not count.

By psalvey

aol and all network news channels should learn from these ratings and realize that a majority of americans are right of center-God and country first.Liberal journalism does not strike the right cord with americans and we gravitate to channels that give us a voice and not call us nuts and radicals.

By jjk

their ratings are down because of the one sider left wing garbage they spew

By er

larry king a dried up old mental case leftist
who the hell listens to that no one

By Mike

No real "on air" talent. Either hire some real talent or just stick to news, without the cutesy little banter and games that news shows play.

By smahajs2

I watched CNN for many years to get direct news stories, also Headline News for breaking stories. Their programing ceased to be neutral and instead of telling the news, they started spinning the news and that spin was to the left. In the meantime, Fox and it's news networks arrived and though they claim, to be Fair and Balanced (they are to some degree), their lean to the right with conservative views were more in line with my views on most subjects.

Maybe it is time for NN and HLN to review their positions on all the news, cease the leftist spin and just report the news as it happens, they might just get some viewers back from Fox if Fox continues to go too far to the right. The middle maybe where the future lies in the news.

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