President Trump rips CNN over ‘ratings dive’ and suggests parent company AT&T should make management changes
- Trump blasted CNN over the network’s ‘ratings dive’ in a tweet on Wednesday
- Called for parent company AT&T to make management changes at CNN
- CNN’s viewership was down 9% in 2019 while Fox News rose 3%
President Donald Trump has blasted CNN over the network’s decline in ratings, and suggested that parent company AT&T should make management changes.
‘Can’t believe AT&T keeps the management after yet another CNN ratings dive. Nobody watching, NO CREDIBILITY! Maybe they should make changes at AT&T?’ Trump tweeted on Wednesday.
Trump also retweeted a link highlighting dismal ratings for CNN’s Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter, which hit a new low of 85,000 viewers in the key demo on December 22.
Spokeswomen for Stelter, CNN, and AT&T did not immediately respond to inquiries from DailyMail.com late on Wednesday.
Trump called for a change in management at CNN, without specifically naming CEO Jeff Zucker (left) over what he calls a ‘ratings dive’ at the news network
CNN, which brands itself as the politically neutral cable news channel, seems to have taken a hard line against the Trump administration, with many hosts and guests outspoken in their criticism of the president.
In leaked audio from a daily ‘rundown call’ in October, CNN Chief Executive Jeff Zucker was heard urging staff to be ‘fully committed’ to story of Trump’s impeachment, calling it ‘unbelievably important and unbelievably significant.’
‘And I also don’t want to be afraid to call out those who are covering it up and obfuscating, and coming out and saying there’s nothing to see here, because they’re lying, okay?’ said Zucker in the recording, obtained by the conservative group Project Veritas.
Fox News was the only of the big three cable news networks that saw an overall rise in viewership in 2019, growing 3 percent from 2018.
MSNBC’s audience dropped 3 percent and and CNN was down 9 percent, according to Nielsen measurements of live-plus-seven-days viewership.
Trump shared a link mocking the embarrassing ratings drop for CNN’s Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter, seen right interviewing actor Robert De Niro
Conservative Fox News was the top-rated of all basic cable networks among total viewers for a fourth year in a row, with an average of 2.57 million in L+7.
Left-leaning MSNBC came in with 1.80 million, according to Nielsen.
CNN notched an average of just 1 million, the data showed.
Fox News also reported its highest-rated prime-time in history, with an average of 2.5 million viewers.
Hannity was the top-rated program in cable news for a third year in a row, with 3.3 million viewers.