CNN Hits Another 20-Year Low; Time Warner CEO Pledges to “Fix It”

The summer Olympics have cut into the viewership of all networks not named NBC, but the drain was particularly acute at CNN. They hit yet another 20-year low in primetime ratings last week.

CNN averaged just 307,000 total viewers overall and 86,000 in the key A25-54 demo, underscoring the need for an overhaul of the network’s programming. One casualty of the poor ratings is CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton who announced last month that he would be leaving the company at the end of the year. Last week, during an earnings conference call, Jeff Bewkes, the CEO of CNN parent company Time Warner, told analysts and reporters that while he still thought CNN was a great brand he wasn’t satisfied with CNN’s performance and was focused on “fixing it.”

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Bewkes outlined his plan to lift CNN”s ratings during the call.

They (ratings) do fluctuate with the news cycle, but we’re going to do a better job putting on programming that will hold viewers. We’ve got more people coming. They’re not staying as long as we would like. And so we think there’s very strong demand. If you ask where we’re aiming, how do we plan to do that: strong demand for objective, comprehensive, nonpartisan coverage, really covering all the partisan views as well. But we need to do it in a very compelling, more engaging way than we’ve been doing of late. And so that’s really what we’re going to focus on next.

One possible new program is “Unconventional Wisdom” which reportedly will feature Gloria Borger and Jeffrey Toobin, and maybe some others. It is the pet project of CNN’s managing editor Mark Whitaker, who is in charge of the network’s program development unit. But that just sounds like more of the same type of programming that CNN already has, and it isn’t likely to boost its poor ratings. As I’ve said before, the network needs a complete overhaul and that means dumping all or most of the current primetime lineup in favor of something, as Bewkes said, more compelling and engaging. In other words quit boring people to death. CNN has been trying to straddle the political fence by not appearing to favor conservatives or liberals, but all they have to show for it are some of the worst ratings in their history.