CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon get the bad news as network continues to make changes

CNN host Anderson Cooper hosts the network’s “most-watched show,” but that hasn’t spared him from becoming a casualty of the ratings wars.

According to a summary of last year’s cable news ratings, Adweek reported, “Anderson Cooper 360 remained the network’s most-watched show, having averaged 868,000 total viewers in 2022.” That put him at 23rd overall in cable news programs.

But that doesn’t mean much. On Friday, Cooper didn’t just finish behind rival Sean Hannity, he was buried by the Fox News standard-bearer, per Mediate.

Mediaite reported that Hannity brought in 2.2 million total viewers the previous Friday, which devoured Cooper’s less-than-stellar 441,000 viewers.

“CNN struggled across primetime, averaging only 438,000 total viewers and 91,000 viewers in the key 25-54 age demographic, significantly behind MSNBC and Fox News,” Mediaite said.

The Western Journal reported that the report “said Fox News averaged 1.64 million viewers for the day” while “[s]econd place MSNBC hit 824,000, while CNN had only 447,000 viewers. In the key 25-54 demographic, Fox News led with 215,000 viewers, followed by MSNBC with 92,000 and CNN with 90,000.”

The news is even worse for CNN’s morning line-up, where the network moved Don Lemon after taking him off his evening prime-time slot, per Fox News:

“CNN This Morning,” the recently launched morning program built around Don Lemon, had its smallest audience since it launched last year among both total viewers and the crucial demo.

“FOX & Friends” averaged 1.3 million viewers while “CNN This Morning” managed only 331,000. When it comes to the key demo, “FOX & Friends” averaged 180,000 viewers compared to only 65,000 for CNN’s morning show.

“The Five” was the most-watched cable news offering of the week with an average audience of 3.3 million viewers, while “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” “Jesse Watters Primetime,” “Hannity” and “Special Report with Bret Baier” rounded out the top five. Along the way, Fox News aired 92 of the 100 most-watched cable news telecasts last week.

“Tucker” took the demo crown with 442,000 viewers between the ages 25-54 to lead cable news in the category.