A few months ago, CNN announced that they were going to try to boost their Friday night ratings by bringing on comedians. Their first attempt at this was to air segments of Bill Maher.
Things have not worked out as planned.
Ratings for Friday nights keep going down. As many have predicted, Bill Maher has not been able to save them.
FOX News reports:
CNN not reaping the benefits from Bill Maher’s ‘Overtime’ segments as viewership continues dwindling
CNN generated plenty of buzz when it announced it would be airing Bill Maher’s “Overtime” segments on Fridays, but did they generate viewers? Not really.
In late January, CNN boss Chris Licht revealed to the Los Angeles Times that his network scooped the long-running YouTube extension to HBO’s “Real Time” and would air on Fridays nights after Maher’s program. Maher’s fans otherwise have to wait until Saturday morning before seeing the segment online.
The Times’ interview with Licht made plenty of headlines, getting attention from such outlets as The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair.
CNN had hoped to use in-house property, as both CNN and HBO share the same parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, in hopes of juicing up the network’s waning viewership, but its ratings decline has only continued.
CNN has shed a whopping 47% of its viewers in the 11:30-11:44 p.m. time slot when “Overtime” has aired since January, according to Nielsen Research Data. The network lost an additional 58% in the key advertiser-targeted 25-54 demo during that same time period.
Maher’s segments during Friday’s “CNN Tonight” have averaged just 368,000 total viewers and only 74,000 in the key demo from February to early March. That’s less than half Maher’s actual audience, which averaged 782,000 total viewers during that same period with an audience that pays the HBO premium while CNN is broadly available on basic cable.
This was completely predictable.
“Major failure”: Bill Maher suffers low ratings as ‘Overtime’ flops on CNN
By the second airing, Maher’s ratings dropped to a mere 345,000 viewers. That’s just as many as Gutfeld has in the 25-54 demo alone…https://t.co/b1jIz2yLzz— johnny dollar (@johnnydollar01) March 13, 2023
CNN not reaping the benefits from Bill Maher's 'Overtime' segments as viewership continues dwindling@CNNTonight with @thelauracoates has shed nearly 50% of its audience since the @BillMaher segments began airing on @CNN
https://t.co/8HPccJPHOI #FoxNews— RoadMN 📈 (@RoadMN) March 18, 2023
CNN’s problems are much bigger than Bill Maher.
The network’s ratings won’t change without a major overhaul.
