New Morning Show Could be Critical for CNN Cable News Median Daytime Viewership 6am- 6pm, in Thousands
Though ratings have improved in recent months, CNN’s morning programming ranked third in viewership in 2012, averaging just 239,000 viewers per day, compared with 452,000 for MSNBC’s Morning Joe and 1.13 million for Fox’s Fox and Friends, according to Nielsen Media Research. Other parts of the day look no better. Continued declines in prime-time viewership, considered the most critical time for cable news, placed the channel third behind Fox and MSNBC for three years straight. In 2012, it fell to third place in daytime viewership for the first time.
There’s more to the story, of course. CNN remains a highly profitable organization, with a wide digital reach and a sizable international presence; it operates more bureaus around the world than Fox and MSNBC combined. And in May, the channel’s previous morning show, Starting Point, averaged 380,000 viewers, according to Nielsen—not enough to come close to Fox and Friends’ 1.26 million, but enough to approach MSNBC’s Morning Joe, which drew an average of 387,000.
New Morning Show Could be Critical for CNN  | Cable News Median Daytime Viewership 6am- 6pm, in Thousands  | MSNBC  | CNN  | FoxNews  | 1. 440  | 1,200  | 1.000  | 800  | 1600  | 400  | 200  | a  | 2003 2004  | 2005  | 2006  | 2007  | 2008  | 2009  | 2010  | 2011  | 2012  | Source: Nielsen Medie Research used under license  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER  | 2013 STATEOF THE NEWS MEDIA 