It was 16 months ago that CNN had a consistent programming lineup in primetime, something that is virtually unheard of in cable news.
While trouble has been widespread for CNN as its viewership has significantly decline since President Trump left office, there has been panic for content in primetime after its scandal-plagued but highest-rated anchor Chris Cuomo was fired in December 2021. The content void further expanded when its poorly-watched host Don Lemon, who had a two-hour block in primetime, was pulled by CNN boss Chris Licht for a new morning show, which has only spawned additional headaches for the network.
There has been a revolving door of fill-in hosts for the 9 p.m. ET vacancy from Jim Acosta to Jake Tapper, while Licht tapped Alisyn Camerota and Laura Coates to lead programming at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET respectively in recent months.
The only constant throughout the chaos has been "Anderson Cooper 360" in the 8 p.m. ET time slot, a program that frequently is not CNN's most-watched on a daily basis despite being in primetime.
Recent developments show weeknight programming remains in flux. Coates is reportedly being pulled from the 11 p.m. ET slot due to lack of staff budgeting, leaving Camerota to do double duty from 10 p.m through midnight. And CNN also announced that "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?" will be moving from Sundays nights at 7 p.m. to Friday nights at 10 p.m.
"This is just the latest shuffling of the deck chairs on the CNN Titanic," one former CNN producer told Fox News Digital.
Over the past several months, reports of CNN courting outside talent to solve their primetime debacle had emerged. CNN confirmed over the weekend that CBS News' Gayle King and NBA legend Charles Barkley will be teaming up for a weekly primetime show aptly titled "King Charles," set to air on Wednesday nights this fall.
Barkley, who confirmed talks with the network were taking place in February, called CNN a "s--- show" and signaled he would "never" do a daily show.
CNN staffers were particularly irked at reported rumors that King, who previously worked with Licht when he was the executive producer of "CBS This Morning," would receive a whopping $12 million salary for hosting one hour per week. The network has had significant budget cuts over the past year and also went through a wrenching round of layoffs at the end of 2022.
"People are pissed," one CNN insider told Fox News Digital.
A spokesman for CNN forcefully pushed back at the $12 million price tag that has been floated in the tabloids, calling that figure "totally laughable" and suggesting it was much lower.
Another CNN insider was also chagrined at Coates, a Black woman who is also a legal analyst at the network, not having her own show, calling her well-liked and a team player. They predicted people at the network will be "up in arms" if the network doesn't do more to address diversity in primetime beyond a one-day-a-week show with King and Barkley.
"I hope management sees it the same way and we avoid a big bruhaha. We’ve had and continue to have enough of them," the insider said.
The King-Barkley pairing, though, is a small antidote for CNN's primetime woes as it addresses only one hour of content on one weeknight instead of all five weeknights. It marks Licht's boldest programming move to date but in a memo to staff, he stopped short of declaring it a permanent solution for CNN by saying the show will air "beginning this fall and running into 2024," perhaps giving him wiggle room to chalk it up as another primetime experiment in case it becomes another ratings dud.
As CNN struggles to restore its primetime programming, Licht seemed to throw in the towel in landing a permanent host to save the network five nights a week, at least in the short term.
In February, the network shifted its pitch to Variety, which ran the headline "CNN Bets News, Not Big Names, Will Capture Crowds at 9 PM." The premise was that the news would be the real star in primetime through town halls, high-profile interviews and other specials rather than a single TV personality to be the face of the time slot. But so far they have failed to juice CNN's ratings.
In March, CNN averaged only 539,000 total viewers in primetime compared to Fox News' 2.1 million average and MSNBC's 1.2 million. CNN finished the first quarter of 2023 with its smallest audience during primetime among the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demo since at least 1991.
All data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research.
Fox News' Brian Flood and David Rutz contributed to this report.
