From Drudge: CNN has lost more than half its audience from a year ago, according to NIELSEN! In 24-Hour Time Period for the first quarter of 2004, FOX NEWS CHANNEL averaged 824,000 viewers, down 36% vs. a year ago, which saw heightened viewership due to the Iraqi War. CNN plummeted 52%, averaging 458,000 viewers, while MSNBC dropped 49% averaging 234,000 viewers.
In PrimeTime, FOX NEWS decreased 36% from its 2003 viewership, averaging 1,394,000 people. CNN plunged 48% with 806,000 viewers and MSNBC fell 50% with 333,000 viewers. Eleven out of the top 12 cable news shows so far in 2004 appeared on FOX NEWS. Only one of CNN’s shows, Larry King Live, made the list at number four with 1,302,000 viewers.
I was saying this for years. Supply and demand. Supply and demand. There’s no real need for CNN anymore. Divide your 50 percent of the American audience among the ABCNNBCBS cabal, not to mention NPR, and it’s not exactly a surprise that the only station offering anything different to the other 50 percent is going to do very well. If the country is split 50/50 and the media is split 90/10, then that 50/10 media is going to clean up. As Fox is doing.