CNN Stars Get Bad News

Who still watches CNN anyway? We see it on all the televisions in the airports, but is anyone truly paying attention?

Inking deals to push a network in a top-down fashion does not mean a network has any real demand. This is true of any industry, product, idea, or service.

If it has to be pushed from the top down, rather than by popular, organic, bottom-up support then chances are it is a dud.

I always asked myself how these networks, with hundreds of millions to billions in operating costs, can stay in business with such low viewership numbers and low ratings.

CNN, and other mainstream networks, survive using a clever system of cable subsidies and business deals to keep their networks on in crowded places like airports and health care syndicates.

This is how they have managed to hold on for so long despite slumping ratings and practically non-existent dedicated audiences.

In a bid to solve the network’s growing financial problems, CNN’s new CEO Mark Thompson is mulling over a drastic reduction in salaries for CNN’s mainstream anchors.

According to sources, Thompson is considering a $50 million reduction in salaries across the board for their television talent.

Despite this, I don’t think a $50 million cut is going to save a company with a fundamentally unsustainable business model.

The year is 2023, we are now firmly in the 21st century where the minnow can best the whale. Advances in technology have created a more decentralized world where a single person can produce a news network from the home.

How can massive behemoths that have high costs, bloated organizations, and a slow turn-around time compete with something as agile as one person creating social media content at home for next to nothing?

Add to this the fact that independent content creators and independent media are now far more popular than so-called ‘mainstream’ news sources and we have a recipe for the complete extinction of the corporate media.

CNN and all big corporate networks aren’t just in trouble, they’re going the way of the dinosaur. I am not the only one who has noticed they are heading for complete collapse:

CNN's ratings are so bad in prime time that the History Channel has higher ratings.
People are waking up! pic.twitter.com/H0Jssnc1PF

— The Constitutional Conservative (@TheCCShowcast) February 15, 2024

CNN promotes Jim Acosta to weekdays, shakes up struggling morning show as ratings issues continue https://t.co/bp8NcXy59X

— Algernon Fross (@fxp123) February 19, 2024

Tucker Derangement Syndrome is getting bad. pic.twitter.com/uxkh96tpyw

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) February 17, 2024

Newsmax broke down the salaries for some of CNN’s top talent:

Anderson Cooper: $20 million per year

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Wolf Blitzer: $15 million

Jake Tapper: $8.5 million

Chris Wallace: $8 million

John Berman, Kate Bolduan, Sara Sidner: $1 million to $2 million each.

Buck Parish explained: “CNN survives only because about 60 million chumps still pay $150 a month for cable/satellite TV. Every month, even though fewer than one percent of those 60 million watch CNN, all 60 million subsidize CNN through their cable bill. CUT THE CABLE.”

CNN survives only because about 60 million chumps still pay $150 a month for cable/satellite TV. Every month, even though fewer than one percent of those 60 million watch CNN, all 60 million subsidize CNN through their cable bill.

CUT THE CABLE ✂️

— Buck Parish (@flatbush711) February 19, 2024

The New York Post featured more troubling news for the struggling Cable News Network:

CNN’s gamble to pair loudmouth basketball commentator Charles Barkley with morning news star Gayle King in prime time has been a disaster in the ratings — even losing out to reruns of old “Friends” and “South Park” episodes.

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Since its debut in late November, viewership has dropped 20% for “King Charles,” the weekly call-in talk show that airs on the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned news network Wednesdays at 10 p.m. Eastern time.