{"id":181287,"date":"2021-03-22T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=181287"},"modified":"2021-03-19T06:36:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T06:36:42","slug":"with-ratings-down-the-networks-hunt-for-a-trump-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/03\/with-ratings-down-the-networks-hunt-for-a-trump-replacement\/","title":{"rendered":"With Ratings Down, the Networks Hunt for a Trump Replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subtitle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/trump-cnn.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-181288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/trump-cnn-1024x705.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/trump-cnn-1024x705.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/trump-cnn-300x207.png 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/trump-cnn-768x529.png 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/trump-cnn.png 1456w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"subtitle\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Trump saved the cable news business once. Without him, things are looking bleak again. Who will news outlets find to feed the outrage machine?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>16 Mar 2021 &#8211; V<\/em><i>ariety <\/i>just published a graph that should horrify cable news executives:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Yikes. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dTwyOEI6ue\" >https:\/\/t.co\/dTwyOEI6ue<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Zel6erjzrj\" >pic.twitter.com\/Zel6erjzrj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NoahCRothman\/status\/1370454789490872325?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >March 12, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">This data, showing significant declines in all of the major primetime cable news shows, came in a piece called, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/vip\/cable-news-ratings-begin-to-suffer-trump-slump-1234926617\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cable News Ratings Begin To Suffer Trump Slump<\/a>.\u201d Gavin Bridge of the Variety Intelligence Platform explained:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>VIP has previously covered the <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/vip\/tvs-trump-bump-will-give-way-to-a-slump-1234887103\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">initial ratings decline<\/a> Fox News, MSNBC and, most of all, CNN, saw in President Biden\u2019s first week, as the nonstop controversies of the previous administration slowed down.<\/p>\n<p>Our prediction that <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/vip\/cnn-primetime-ratings-fall-post-trump-1234897869\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">audiences would perk up<\/a> for President Trump\u2019s second impeachment trial proved correct. But in the weeks after the trial ended, audiences for CNN have plummeted; MSNBC is seeing about half CNN\u2019s drop, while Fox News is down single digits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"indent\">It\u2019s natural for news audiences to dip after seismic events like the January 6th riots. CNN had its <a href=\"https:\/\/money.yahoo.com\/cnn-dominates-january-cable-news-204919509.html\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">best month ever in January<\/a>, and individual shows like <i>Anderson Cooper 360 <\/i>jumped above 5 million viewers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">Still, <i>Variety\u2019s <\/i>report showing significant ratings drops as we move farther away from the Trump experience is both predictable and fascinating. It\u2019s not clear how media executives will respond to losing the best friend they ever had. They will either have to surrender to the idea of significant long-term losses \u2014 impossible to imagine \u2014 or find a way to continue an all-time blockbuster entertainment franchise, which doubled as the most divisive public relations campaign in our history, without the show\u2019s main character.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">Trump transformed news into a ratings Krakatoa, combining the side-against-side drama of sports programming with the amphetamine urgency of breaking news.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">Moreover, the Democratic Party\u2019s response to Trump \u2014 which involved multiple efforts to remove him, premised on the idea that every day he spent in the Oval Office was an existential threat to humanity \u2014 allowed stations to turn every day of the Trump years into a baby-down-a-well story (the baby was democracy). Between the Mueller investigation, two impeachments, the Kavanaugh confirmation, multiple border crises, the \u201cTreason in Helsinki\u201d fiasco, and a hundred other tales, every day could be pitched as a drop-everything emergency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">Add the partisan rooting angle, and you had ratings gold. Imagine three or four dozen Super Bowls a year, each one played in the middle of a category 5 hurricane, and you come close to grasping the magnitude of the gift that Donald Trump was to MSNBC, Fox, and CNN.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">Six or seven years ago, it was common to see CNN or MSNBC fall <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2015\/tv\/news\/ratings-espn-tops-cable-for-year-own-hallmark-we-tv-among-few-gainers-1201391036\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">outside the top 20 rated cable networks<\/a>, below titans like Disney, USA, TBS, and the History Channel. By 2020, the <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2020\/12\/ratings-cable-news-networks-2020-1234660751\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">three top networks<\/a> on cable \u2014 not just news networks, but overall \u2014 were Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. The fact that news ate away so much of the market share of the entertainment business in the Trump years raises questions about what exactly we were watching.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">Jump in your <i>Dr. Who <\/i>police box and go back to 2014, the last year Trump was not a major political figure. The cable news genre had what <i>Variety <\/i>described as an \u201coverall down year.\u201d It was a particularly grim time for CNN and MSNBC:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>Total Primetime<\/i><\/span><i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>Viewers<\/i><\/span><i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i>2014 <\/i>Change<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Fox News\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1.779 million\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (even)<br \/>\nMSNBC \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 600,000\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 (down 8%)<br \/>\nCNN\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 528,000\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (down 8%)<br \/>\nHLN \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 337,000\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (down 16%)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"indent\">CNN exemplified the pre-Trump dilemma. In 2011, the network\u2019s average primetime viewership was 689,000. That <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2012\/12\/fox-news-2012-cable-news-networks-tv-ratings-msnbc-cnn-388345\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dropped to 670,000 in 2012<\/a>, and the year after that, in 2013, it fell all the way to 568,000, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/money\/business\/2014\/01\/02\/cable-news-ratings-2013\/4296411\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">20-year low<\/a>. Imagine the pucker factor at Time Warner the next year, when CNN\u2019s entire 8-11 p.m. programming slate dropped 8% off that 20-year dip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">2013 was CNN\u2019s first year under the management of Jeff Zucker, whose career arc leading into the Trump years was a dazzling study in failing upward. He was named <a href=\"https:\/\/select.nytimes.com\/gst\/abstract.html?res=F4091FF63E5C0C768EDDAB0994D8404482&amp;n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fZ%2fZucker%2c%20Jeff\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">head of NBC Entertainment in 2000<\/a>, and rode the successes of a handful of shows \u2014 including, notably, <i>The Apprentice <\/i>\u2014 into a job<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/facesinthenews\/2005\/12\/15\/nbc-zucker-cbs-cx_gl_1215autofacescan14.html?partner=rss\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> as CEO of NBC Universal<\/a>, where he presided over one of the most disastrous tenures of any TV executive in history. Under his leadership, NBC dropped to fourth behind ABC, CBS, and Fox, amid catastrophic decisions like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-2010-jan-09-la-fi-ct-zucker9-2010jan09-story.html\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trying to move Jay Leno into primetime<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">When Zucker moved to CNN, he trumpeted a new plan to save the news. This is from <i>Politico <\/i>in 2013:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Zucker has told staff he wants to \u201cbroaden the definition of what news is,\u201d meaning more sports, more entertainment, more human interest stories \u2014 and, at times, less politics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"indent\">That didn\u2019t work out so well in 2014, though to be fair to Zucker, the ratings narrative <a href=\"https:\/\/cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com\/2015\/01\/27\/cnn-has-the-ratings-momentum-in-jan-narrows-gap-w-fox-news-to-lowest-in-yrs-tops-msnbc-in-all-categories-release\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">started reversing<\/a> at least somewhat before Trump jumped on the scene. But the first giant leap forward for the business as a whole came in 2015, when CNN&#8217;s average primetime audience soared to 730,000, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2015\/tv\/news\/cable-news-ratings-cnn-top-gainer-fox-news-channel-dominant-1201666151\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a 30% increase<\/a>, in significant part because it hosted two Republican debates starring Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">The news business had never seen anything like the Trump effect. The first Republican debate on Fox drew 25 million viewers and was the most-watched non-sports event in the history of cable, while the second debate drew 23 million and was merely the top show in the history of CNN.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indent\">Taking note of all this was Trump himself, whose poll numbers were dipping a bit at the end of 2015. Some were predicting his demise. To this, Trump snapped, \u201cI\u2019m not a masochist,\u201d and promised he\u2019d pull out if his numbers worsened. However, he said, if he did, \u201cThere\u2019d be a major collapse of television ratings,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/politics\/first-draft\/2015\/10\/05\/donald-trump-sees-a-collapse-in-a-g-o-p-campaign-without-him\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">adding a poisonous prediction<\/a>: \u201cIt would become a depression in television.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>This is an excerpt from\u00a0today\u2019s subscriber-only post. To read the entire post and get full access to the archives, you can subscribe for $5 a month or $50 a year.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>______________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mattTaibbi.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-119682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mattTaibbi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"92\" height=\"92\" \/><\/a><em>Matthew C. Taibbi is an American author, journalist, and podcaster. He has reported on finance, media, politics, and sports. He is a contributing editor for <\/em>Rolling Stone<em>, author of several books, a winner of the National Magazine Award for commentary<\/em>,<em> co-host of <\/em>Useful Idiots<em>, and publisher of a newsletter on <\/em>Substack.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/taibbi.substack.com\/p\/without-trump-is-a-depression-in-293\" >Go to Original \u2013 taibbi.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>16 Mar 2021 &#8211; Trump saved the cable news business once. Without him, things are looking bleak again. Who will news outlets find to feed the outrage machine?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":181288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[867,2197,133,2314,392,378,1855,278,70,1365],"class_list":["post-181287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-anglo-america","tag-biden","tag-cia","tag-corporate-media","tag-elections","tag-journalism","tag-mainstream-media-msm","tag-russia","tag-usa","tag-war-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}