The situation has been dire at CNN, the legacy cable news outlet, for a long time, but the latest viewership numbers are, well, beyond brutal. You might even say that the collapse is now complete, or just a few months away.
Adweek reports for the week ending April 23: “Fox News was the most-watched network on an off-night for cable news. FNC saw its primetime numbers dip below 3 million total viewers and into the low 300,000s in the Adult 25-54 demo. MSNBC finished second in primetime in both total viewers and the demo with 1.53 million viewers and 129,000 viewers, respectively. Meanwhile, CNN fell below 500,000 total viewers and under 100,000 A25-54 viewers during primetime.”
CNN’s full-scale collapse continues rapidly. It reaches a remarkable new low led by @kaitlancollins and @abbydphillip: fewer than 500,000 viewers total in prime-time! That’s almost impossible to do even if you wanted it.
Also, they’re well below 100k for viewers under 55. pic.twitter.com/4gG4jMWBTH
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 27, 2025
That’s beyond disastrous, especially given all of the primetime shakeups that have taken place at CNN over the past several months, and media analyst and journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed that out in an X post containing the latest Adweek findings. “CNN’s full-scale collapse continues rapidly. It reaches a remarkable new low led by @kaitlancollins @abbydphillip: fewer than 500,000 viewers total in prime-time! That’s almost impossible to do even if you wanted it. Also, they’re well below 100k for viewers under 55.” These numbers are even more shocking when you realize the ‘viewers’ being counted aren’t intentionally tuning in, as social media commenters explained.
A significant number of those views come from tvs running CNN 24/7 to uninterested audiences at the airport, gym, and car dealerships.
You could probably slash 50% off that 500K.
— Propaganda & co (@propandco) April 27, 2025
People ‘watching’ CNN and MSDNC are mostly 80+ year olds in nursing homes….they are taking nap in their recliner while the CNN or MSDNC is ‘ON’ collecting their miserable rating.
A significant number of people consuming lamestream media propaganda will be dead in the next 10…
— 1776 (@CaliCusePatriot) April 27, 2025
It’s not clear how much longer CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros Discovery, will continue throwing good money after bad to keep a bad left-wing network on the air without viewers. If it weren’t for CNN.com and some of CNN’s overseas properties being profitable, its like the very first cable news outlet would have been shuttered long ago.
