CNN executives made a huge gamble by hosting a town hall with Donald Trump on the network.
The decision did not sit well with CNN’s left-wing audience.
And CNN CEO Chris Licht just saw one report that left him second-guessing his decision to host a town hall with Donald Trump.
As much as the media hates Donald Trump, there is no denying the fact that his Presidency was good business for left-wing networks like CNN and MSNBC.
In fact, CNN achieved record ratings during the 2020 election.
But CNN and other left-wing media outlets saw a massive drop in the ratings after Donald Trump left office in January of 2021.
The plunge in ratings continued for networks like CNN, which hit its lowest numbers ever in 2022.
“In 2022, CNN averaged just over half a million viewers in total day, and just over 120,000 in the advertiser-relevant 25-to-54 year-old demo—its lowest-rated year in history,” Puck News previously reported.
CNN executives devised a plan to turn things around at the network by moving away from the partisan left-wing reporting toward a more balanced approach.
In a post on Truth Social last year, Donald Trump said the network could increase ratings by having more conservatives on the air and even offered to help if they wanted it.
Even though Trump was somewhat joking, CNN executives took him up on his offer by hosting a town hall with him last week in New Hampshire.
The town hall was such a massive success for Donald Trump that Democrats quickly attacked CNN executives for allowing him to speak.
Despite the attacks, CNN experienced a massive ratings boost from the town hall.
The town hall brought in five times more viewers than the normal 8 p.m. hour programming among the important 25-54 age demographic.
“The network scored 3.12 million total viewers and 703,000 viewers in the key 25-54 age demographic in the 8 p.m. hour,” Nielsen Fast National reported Wednesday.
However, the ratings boost was apparently short-lived.
After jumping to first in the ratings during the town hall and the days immediately following, CNN fell to fourth place for primetime viewership ratings, even finishing below Newsmax.
“Just days after CNN scored a rare first-place finish in prime time with its town hall session featuring former President Donald Trump, the network dropped into fourth place Friday night, trailing conservative network Newsmax,” Forbes reported. “CNN delivered an average total audience of 335,000 viewers in prime Friday, just behind Newsmax’s 357,000 viewers,” the report continued, before adding that “Fox News finished first in prime with 1.44 million viewers, and MSNBC was second overall with 1.084 million viewers.”
Fox News took the top spot with 1.44 million viewers and MSNBC came in second with 1.084 million viewers.
Trump’s town hall with CNN certainly gave the network a short adrenaline boost.
But Trump supporters are only going to watch CNN if he is on the network.
Meanwhile, CNN’s typical left-wing audience is not happy about the network giving Trump a voice.
And the ratings show they are losing viewers over it.
