CNN, Acknowleding Failure, Cuts Show's Length

[davideduardo]

The truth is that for most of his time at CNN, Cooper's show was an hour. For a time, they repeated his hour later at night. Then when Piers Morgan needed to be replaced, they decided to do the cheap and easy thing by filling the time with a second live hour of Cooper. To say it's failing ignores the fact that the rest of the night is getting about the same numbers. Cooper is doing average considering it's CNN. Cuomo is a smart and articulate guy. He deserves to be seen at night. Hopefully they won't force the same multi-guest panel on him that's killing Cooper and Lemon.

Good point, but still... the second hour was under-performing. While the "fail" may be due to management trying to save money, it was still not doing as well as the time slot could.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Cuomo is a smart and articulate guy. He deserves to be seen at night. Hopefully they won't force the same multi-guest panel on him that's killing Cooper and Lemon.

Agree. CNN really could stand to have a long-form interview program. Not necessarily exactly in the form of Larry King Live, but just to give CNN something different in prime time. The only show on cable news I can think of where a single guest is interviewed one-on-one for more than about 4 minutes is Maddow, and she does it only occasionally. I've also seen such interviews on Hannity, but only if he gets a big exclusive, usually with a high-level member of the Trump Administration.

The whole CNN lineup is basically the same show on repeat for 16 hours a day, just swapping John King for Wolf Blitzer for Anderson Cooper as the day progresses.

Here is a criticism of Wolf Blitzer's show that I found amusing the other week. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/22/the-trouble-with-wolf-blitzer-217074 It could probably apply to Cooper, John King, Don Lemon, and others, but Blitzer is an easy target because he's so very milquetoast and only moderately articulate.

 

[TheBigA]

Agree. CNN really could stand to have a long-form interview program. Not necessarily exactly in the form of Larry King Live, but just to give CNN something different in prime time.

As long as the long form interviews aren't with the same people we see every day on the other channels. There are lots of other things to talk about.

 

[umfan]

the title of this thread is so "clickbaity". and plus source is Fox News, which is known to kinda be "Politically bias" to a certain party, which has complete power now in DC, and well, maybe the thread show have it's title changed and source material from a source that can be "trusted".

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/business/media/chris-cuomo-cnn.html

Gee, Will, is this enough of a 'trusted' source for you? Of course, you could've started a thread you deemed more appropriate. If Cooper was getting it done, there wouldn't be a change. Zucker has failed to turn CNN's fortunes around. The network IS failing!

 

[umfan]

Let's look at the facts:

CNN is losing badly to MSNBC and Fox.

Anderson Cooper's show was reduced in length.

Anderson Cooper's show was under-performing the CNN prime average.

So the headline, while a bit sensationalized by the use of the word "failure", is truthful and not politically biased. In fact, the reference is to ratings, not politics.

And yet another article about CNN's low ratings is not clickbait. That's about as boring and repetitive a subject as saying "It rained in Miami today".

Thank you, David. I think you articulated that very nicely.

 

[formeraa]

Fox News isn't on top because of their confrontational hosts, it's because the viewers like the narrative they present. It doesn't have to be true or accurate as long as it is what they agree with. CNN plays it as a journalist, with facts and debate. MSNBC wants to be the left version of Fox News but still keep some credibility. Fox News just wants to make their viewers happy and report what they want to hear even it is blatantly false.

I wouldn't characterize MSNBC as the left version of Fox with some credibility. Certainly, it may be true for MSNBC's evening programming. Much of the daytime programming is much more newsy and much less left-slanted, if you will. The weekday daytime programs take on a much newsier "populist" tone, I believe.

 

[umfan]

http://frontpage.pch.com/article/98...paganda-machine/entertainment?ref=trendingnow

Zucker must be delusional. S possible explanation for why he'd retain Anderson Cooper despite his poor ratings and try to stem the loss of viewers with Chris Cuomo. For him to accuse any other network of being a propaganda machine is irony to the nth degree! CNN is quite biased on its opinion shows and, arguably, on much of its allegedly straight news programs. If he has a problem with propaganda, he would do well to clean his own house first.

 

[TheBigA]

When I first saw that story, I thought they were quoting Ralph Peters, who recently quit Fox, not Zucker. But apparently they agree:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomnamako/ralph-peters?utm_term=.lgrekXQAdQ#.jo4j1b6dA6

 

[bobjim45]

When I first saw that story, I thought they were quoting Ralph Peters, who recently quit Fox, not Zucker. But apparently they agree:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomnamako/ralph-peters?utm_term=.lgrekXQAdQ#.jo4j1b6dA6

So when does Jeff Zucker hires Ralph Peters to be CNN’s chief Fox News critic

 

[Megatron]

http://frontpage.pch.com/article/98...paganda-machine/entertainment?ref=trendingnow

Zucker must be delusional. S possible explanation for why he'd retain Anderson Cooper despite his poor ratings and try to stem the loss of viewers with Chris Cuomo. For him to accuse any other network of being a propaganda machine is irony to the nth degree! CNN is quite biased on its opinion shows and, arguably, on much of its allegedly straight news programs. If he has a problem with propaganda, he would do well to clean his own house first.

Wish that everyone just worry about their own news network and not what their rivals are doing. Jeff Zucker should be sued for what he said about Fox News I'd sue Jeff Zucker and wouldn't let CNN use news clips of the shows from Fox News.

 

[TheBigA]

What would be the basis for your suit?

 

[FreddyE1977]

Jeff Zucker should be sued for what he said about Fox News I'd sue Jeff Zucker and wouldn't let CNN use news clips of the shows from Fox News.

They are not going to sue him. They'd probably like to thank him for the free publicity.
Nothing could make Fox News fans want to watch more often than hearing Fox badmouthed
by Jeff Zucker. He actually MADE them money with that comment.

And if CNN stopped letting them use clips, Fox would retaliate in kind, which would likely
set off sort of a Mutually Assured Destruction process in the TV news biz.

 

[Gregg.]

Since all the evening shows on the news channels are one hour long, reducing Cooper to one hour when that's what he had been doing, is not such a come-down. I suppose after having to wake up early for so long, Cuomo is happy to be moving to prime time. So now there will be all one hour shows on CNN in the evening, just like Fox and MSNBC.

Let's remember that American TV news ratings are only one part of CNN. It makes a lot of money from CNN International, seen all over the planet. And even if the U.S. network (also seen in Canada and the Caribbean) is in third place, it still makes a very healthy income.

Donald Trump has certainly skewed the news channel ratings. His followers, and he, are always watching Fox News. Those upset with him are watching MSNBC. That leaves CNN at #3. In Donald Trump's America, where few people are centrists, CNN is the centrist news station. I guess the same is true of late night TV hosts. When Barack Obama was president, Jimmy Fallon was #1, Kimmel was #2 and people were wondering if Stephen Colbert would last. Now that he mocks Trump every night, in both his monologue and desk bit, he's solidly #1.

 

[TheBigA]

Since all the evening shows on the news channels are one hour long, reducing Cooper to one hour when that's what he had been doing,

Actually Don Lemon is also 2 hours. And that show should also go to an hour.

If CNN wants to improve its evening ratings, they need to do some show development.

 

[umfan]

Since all the evening shows on the news channels are one hour long, reducing Cooper to one hour when that's what he had been doing, is not such a come-down. I suppose after having to wake up early for so long, Cuomo is happy to be moving to prime time. So now there will be all one hour shows on CNN in the evening, just like Fox and MSNBC.

Let's remember that American TV news ratings are only one part of CNN. It makes a lot of money from CNN International, seen all over the planet. And even if the U.S. network (also seen in Canada and the Caribbean) is in third place, it still makes a very healthy income.

Donald Trump has certainly skewed the news channel ratings. His followers, and he, are always watching Fox News. Those upset with him are watching MSNBC. That leaves CNN at #3. In Donald Trump's America, where few people are centrists, CNN is the centrist news station. I guess the same is true of late night TV hosts. When Barack Obama was president, Jimmy Fallon was #1, Kimmel was #2 and people were wondering if Stephen Colbert would last. Now that he mocks Trump every night, in both his monologue and desk bit, he's solidly #1.

I might be inclined to agree, Gregg, but CNN has been lagging badly for years, and the downward trend, already bad, was exacerbated under Zucker. He might have been able to declare victory had he been able to even stop the bleeding, but it's only been worse under his tenure. MSNBC has certainly benefitted greatly by effectively branding itself as the place for those who disagree with the President to go to. That basically explains their gain in the ratings over the last 18-24 months.

CNN did much to hurt its credibility. The Donna Brazile scandal comes quickly to mind as an example.