CNN's Schedule Shakeup: New CEO Licht's Attempt To Try And Catch Fox, MSNBC

As CNN trails competitors Fox News and MSNBC in ratings and faces decreasing profit projections, the network is changing its schedule and advertising revenue streams to compete.

CNN announced Thursday its schedule leading up to the Midterm elections, moving Jake Tapper into prime time at 9 p.m., as well as Alisyn Camerota and Laura Coates taking over from 10p.m. to midnight on CNN Tonight.

The Five was the most popular cable news show in August with an average of 3.39 million viewers.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Tonight had 2.27 million average viewers.

Anderson Cooper's show was the most-viewed CNN show with 950,000 viewers.

In August, Fox had 2.34 million viewers, MSNBC had 1.29 million viewers, and CNN had 733,000 viewers.

The New York Times reported last month that S&P Global Market Intelligence projected CNN would make nearly $1 billion in 2022.

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A total of $623 million. CNN was projected to make more money in 2020 than Fox and MSNBC.

Top 10 Cable News Primetime Shows

In August 2022.

1. Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight (8 p.m.), 3.31 million average viewers
2. Fox News, Hannity (9 p.m.), 2.91 million average viewers
3. MSNBC, The Rachel Maddow Show (9 p.m.), 2.72 million average viewers
4. Fox News, The Ingraham Angle (10 p.m.), 2.48 million average viewers
5. MSNBC, Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell (10 p.m.), 1.68 million average viewers
6. MSNBC, MSNBC Prime, (9 p.m.), 1.56 million average viewers
7. MSNBC, Alex Wagner Tonight (9 p.m.), 1.55 million average viewers
8. MSNBC, All In With Chris Hayes (8 p.m.) 1.44 million average viewers
9. CNN, Anderson Cooper 360 (8 p.m.), 950,000 average viewers
10. CNN, CNN Tonight, (9 p.m.) 726,000 average viewers

Key Background

The second most watched year in CNN's history was last year. The ratings for the major cable news networks plummeted in the year after the Trump administration took office. In November 2020, CNN hit a 40-year high. Warner Media merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN's new streaming service CNN+ was shut down weeks after the merger. Since taking over as CNN's president in May, Licht has made a number of changes to the network. Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter said in August that he was leaving CNN and that his show was canceled. Chris Wallace, who left Fox earlier this year for CNN, announced this week a talk show that will air on both CNN and HBO Max, after his flagship CNN+ show was canned. Chef Alison Roman, whose CNN+ cooking show also fell through, will be on CNN this fall. According to the Times, Licht told employees at his first town hall to not pay attention to ratings, and has brought on an executive to bring new revenue streams to the company.

CNN in 2021 will no longer be associated with the Trump phenomenon, as well as a top anchor being fired.

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