CNN’s ‘The Lead With Jake Tapper’ Premieres Soft As Jeff Zucker Era Begins

COMMENTS (16)

• Primetime is what needs to be fixed, that is where the viewers and the ad $’s are. FNC is beating CNN and MSNBC combined in primetine. Primetime is the most valuable real estate on TV, network and cable.

  Comment by Alex — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 2:46pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • False, MSNBC has taken the lead over Fox many times. it’s a back and forth between first and second.

    Comment by fored — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 3:44pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • lol what? I’m sorry, but what? MSNBC has NEVER taken the lead from Fox. In any segment. In any time slot. In overall performance for total viewers, Fox easily beats MSNBC by more that 2-1, and even in the young democrat-heavy key demo, they’re still trialing by double digit percentages. In both dayside and Primetime, MSNBC is much, much closer to CNN than to Fox.

      I don’t know where you got your info from, but you need to have a word with your source.

      Comment by NervisRex — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 9:01pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • It’s the demo that matters to advertisers, not total viewers. As fored points out, MSNBC’s shows have beat Fox News in the demo many times.

    Comment by JR — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 7:43pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • Only they haven’t. The only times they have pulled in more key demo numbers has been during live coverage of democrat slanted events, and even those they have been losing to CNN lately, like the recent State of the Union speech. The only people who care about that are fringe wonks and liberal pundits. Advertisers look at those scattered Pyrrhic victories, look at the overall numbers for each month, and collectively shrug their shoulders.

      Comment by NervisRex — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 9:06pm PDT  Reply to this post

• CNN insists on sticking with its ‘real news’ branding in exchange for the ratings you can get with real, albeit biased, personalities like O’Reilly. But CNN’s news is no better than its competitors, and mostly useless in the internet era.

  They need to either go with real journalism or copy Fox News (i.e, loud personalities).

  Comment by the_problem_with — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 3:24pm PDT  Reply to this post

• FNC is typically where I tune in for news but I will check out Jake Tapper because he is one of the precious few journalists I actually respect. I was addicted to CNN for years and its going to take more than a little media buzz for people like me to switch back.

  The Fox News Channel has succeeded despite the onslaught of attacks which sought to discredit and marginalize the network. Viewers simply found that all the anti-FNC rhetoric was false once they tuned-in. Though few would argue the conservative leanings of FNC, Roger Ailes has made sure to include a liberal point-of-view throughout Fox News’ programming and snatched up many commentators who rose to prominence on CNN over the years.

  If Jeff Zucker expects to see CNN’s fortunes rise again, he better be sure not to insult half of his potential audience—he needs to bring back conservative viewers. There is a lesson to be learned in Anderson Cooper’s implosion. Despite an all out media blitz to boost audience awareness, his choice to go hard left turned many viewers off. Referring to a grass-roots political movement of overwhelmingly decent Americans as “Teabaggers” was perhaps his lowest point and the final nail in his coffin. CNN needs to work hard at creating a balance and allowing for opposing points-of-view much like its early days when shows like “Crossfire” existed on its schedule.

  Comment by Just Me — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 3:44pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Just a horrible show. I want my Wolf back in that hour.

  Comment by Mamacita — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 4:12pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The average (normal’) viewer had no reason to watch cable news unless there’s some major breaking news. You just get fanatics or political junkies or extremists, which is why fox n MSNBC do better. I always wonder if Republicans believe so much in work, how so many Republicans don’t the time to listen to these conservatives radio hosts and Fox all day

  Comment by Anonymous — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 4:43pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • It’s mostly retirees. Fox News’ audience skews incredibly old.

    Comment by JR — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 7:41pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • Yet still consistently beats out CNN and MSNBC in the key demo when averaged month to month, year to year. Besides that, key demo doesn’t mean much in this field, since younger viewers are more likely to get their news from websites and other sources. No, that older demo, who relies heavily on cable and network news, is where their advertisers are going to focus, which is why you’re far more likely to see ads for Ensure on all three networks than for RedBull.

      Comment by NervisRex — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 9:10pm PDT  Reply to this post

• …you just get fanatics or political junkies or extremists.” I guess you mean average, ahem, “normal viewers” such as the woefully uninformed, low information voters? Some people are frightening in their praise of the ignorant.

  And as for Fox’s “retiree” audience …you mean people who have more life experience, intelligence, wisdom and have real money to spend? The importance placed on the 25-54 target audience is a bit skewed when one considers the country’s aging demographics. Nevertheless, FNC’s 25-54 audience is still a bit higher than MSNBC’s and nearly triple that of CNN’s. Overall, FNC generally attracts more viewers than MSNBC and CNN combined.

  Comment by Just Me — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 8:52pm PDT  Reply to this post

• This article is humorous. It’s posted after the 2nd episode and only talks about the first. No mention of ratings a year ago. No mention of lead in Show ratings. No mention that a daily news show ratings vary greatly day to day regardless of the network and trends mattter more than daily totals. So glad you have relevant context and such quick publishing deadlines.
  Those that think left vs right vs so called unbiased hosts/content/audiences fail to realize that’s purely perspective and trends show it doesn’t matter anyway. It fails to capture the broader audience that just wants to get some news, or be educated, or informed, or simply entertained or just background noise. When you only look for an audience from the left or right you miss what’s in front, back, above, below and everything in between. That’s the audience The Lead is going after, hence why topics like sports are covered by Rachael Nichols formerly with ESPN on the first episode. It’s a bigger picture. I suggest you step back and watch. It’s not a simple two sided coin. Time will tell on the ratings for sure. But this article missed that point.

  Comment by Steve1855 — Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 9:14pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I’m surprised that Nanny Bloomberg wasn’t a big draw, his next ban for NYC should be any network associated with Jeff Zucker.

  Comment by Bill H — Wednesday March 20, 2013 @ 10:37am PDT  Reply to this post

• The guy is a wimp and a bore. The numbers show it and that won’t change.

  Comment by INTHEKNOW — Thursday March 21, 2013 @ 4:42pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I have been comparing FNC, msnbc, and CNN just to see which ones are biased and guess what–you lose! I guess I just have Midwest values. Barb Perry

  Comment by Barbara perry — Thursday May 16, 2013 @ 1:27pm PDT  Reply to this post