This Was CNN: Where Have Its Viewers Gone?

1) Put Leno on 5 times a night.
2) No.

[...] Last Place Primetime Finish: Not the First Time… Time Magazine’s James Poniewozik writes about CNN’s last place finish in October. However Poniewozik notes what Bill Carter wrote in the [...]

Of course to actually make sense that should have been “Put Leno on 5 times a week.”

I actually get HLN as part of my “channels 2-25 free-with-cheap-internet super basic cable” package now (they moved Univision to C-SPAN’s spot and dropped HLN in Univision’s spot… where will I go for my C-SPAN coverage???), so it’s possible that my random viewing pushed HLN over CNN.

1) Find a psycho liberal and a psycho conservative (you know, the types that make Olbermann and O’Reilly look like moderates) and put them up against each other in American Gladiator type combat. Completely irrational political arguments + physical violence = the perfect combination.

2) If I got the channel, I’d be tempted to watch. Admit it… you would too.

I don’t know – the possibility of Leno 5 times a night doesn’t sound as crazy as it used to…

They need to ditch the commentary and do longform investigative reporting stories on specific issues every night. Not cheesy stuff either, like the heartwarming story of X, Y, or Z overcoming adversity, but real in-depth interviews on important issues that no one else is really covering. The problem is they keep trying to cover the same stuff everyone else is trying to cover, but the people watch 24 hour news regularly generally want an opinionated slant. Wolf Blitzer is so ridiculously bland it irritates the hell out of me. Even when there is pretty much clear and incontrovertible evidence of some sort of nefarious political deeds, they avoid saying anything definitive on the subject. “He may have lied to congress…” – when the documents clearly show they did lie. Stuff like that. You want good investigative reporting? Check out Vanguard on Current TV. CNN could learn a thing or two from them.

Create CNN 3, Heck bring back CNNfn since you can make ratings in this current economic downturn.

I still watch CNN during the daytime but sadly I’m those who watch the Primetine on other networks

Dose it count that I saw Latinos in America

I agree. Haven’t seen Vanguard on Current TV, however I did catch one of the Frontline episodes on PBS last week that was a very well done piece on an effort by Brooksley Born and the CFTC to regulate over the counter derivatives in the late 90′s. After watching it, my first thought was that I wished that people in Washington had been smart enough to listen to her, and then I thought how this type of program (and journalism) isn’t on any of the “main stream” cable networks.

I’m an avid NPR listener and will now be adding Frontline to my stable of trusted news sources.

I agree. Why don’t they simply go back to basics and provide a better journalistic product? The schlock they put out now is terrible. As a junkie of American politics I grew up watching CNN. It was on constantly in my house, and I find these days that I can barely go near it. I have the advantage as a Canadian to get my news from the CBC and other news outlets that don’t repeat the same bits over and over again for the excuse that there is no news. It’s a big world out there, there is always something going on!

Finally, my major problem at the moment is the Facebook and Twitter reporting that they’re filling time with. I don’t care what Joe from Wherever thinks about a major issue. I’d like to hear from an expert, someone who has studied and investigated the problem. Joe is essentially my neighbour, coworker , and friend. I’ve already had this type of opinionated informal discussion with them and others about major topics. When I tune in to a news outlet I want to hear what other people who do this for a living have to say. Thus there is no point in me going to CNN. That being said it sort of makes this post mute, ’cause that’s essentially what I’m doing here. Although you don’t have to read this, while on CNN I can’t edit live TV.

I agree with the previous comments about ditching commentary and doing more investigative reporting. The commentary has gone out of control. There is no reason why a whole week’s worth of primetime coverage should be devoted to the political ramifications of the Olympics going to Brazil and not Obama’s hometown. It comes across as juvenile. Instead, there should be more original (not regurgitating blogs) reporting on a wide array of issues. It seems like whenever they do create original reporting, it is always in a war torn region in the Middle East. Is there anything else going on??
Also, they need to adopt a philosophy of making the news the star, not the person who reports the news. Most of the members of CNN’s primetime lineup (and morning show too!) come across as arrogant jerks. Lou Dobbs is the worst, but Campbell Brown is not far behind. Anderson Cooper has tried to tone it down, but most of the cast…I mean “guests” on his show are completely unwatchable. All they do is read the teleprompter and/or read bullet points from their respective interest group, and we, the viewers, are supposed to enjoy watching them? If more of CNN was like Larry King or Soledad O’Brien, who usually do not grab attention to themselves, then I would watch CNN more

The problem is investigative reporting is fairly expensive. It would be fine if anyone actually watched cable news, but cable news’ dirty little secret is that mostly its viewership is old people, politicians, and the rest of the media (these are not entirely independent categories, of course). So CNN can’t really charge enough for their commercials to pay for investigative reporting.

I have a different suggestion: CNN should become the newsy channel; just make stuff up. This works for Fox, but their disadvantage is that they are stuck with a point of view, which immediately limits their audience. (Plus it’s a point of view primarily attractive to nearly dead white people, who are less attractive to advertisers.)

CNN has tried to play it both ways. At night, Fox goes right, MSNBC goes left. As the Daily Show points out, CNN has decided to be moderate by being squishy. “We’ll leave it there”, when a guest makes a demonstrably false statement.
.
What viewers does this attract? There needs to be a hard news model. Basically, turn the reigns over to people like Amanpour. Retire Larry King already. Enough is enough. He never prepares for interviews. It’s pablum.
.
To be wildy successful, CNN needs to really just attract 1,500,000 viewers. CNN needs to figure out a way to be smarter than everybody else and do it. Less hacks in other words. There are some serious Republicans out there. Instead of Alex Castellanos, there have to be better options.