CNN not reaping the advantages from Invoice Maher’s ‘Extra time’ segments as viewership continues dwindling

CNN generated loads of buzz when it introduced it will be airing Invoice Maher’s “Extra time” segments on Fridays, however did they generate viewers? Not likely. 

In late January, CNN boss Chris Licht revealed to the Los Angeles Occasions that his community scooped the long-running YouTube extension to HBO’s “Actual Time” and would air on Fridays nights after Maher’s program. Maher’s followers in any other case have to attend till Saturday morning earlier than seeing the phase on-line. 

The Occasions’ interview with Licht made loads of headlines, getting consideration from such shops as The Hollywood Reporter and Vainness Truthful.

BILL MAHER SAYS COVID ‘DISSENTERS’ ARE ‘LOOKING PRETTY GOOD’ FOLLOWING LAB LEAK THEORY DEVELOPMENTS

CNN had hoped to make use of in-house property, as each CNN and HBO share the identical guardian firm Warner Bros. Uncover, in hopes of juicing up the community’s waning viewership, however its rankings decline has solely continued.

CNN has shed a whopping 47% of its viewers within the 11:30-11:44 p.m. time slot when “Extra time” has aired since January, in keeping with Nielsen Analysis Information. The community misplaced an extra 58% in the important thing advertiser-targeted 25-54 demo throughout that very same time interval. 

Maher’s segments throughout Friday’s “CNN Tonight” have averaged simply 368,000 whole viewers and solely 74,000 in the important thing demo from February to early March. That is lower than half Maher’s precise viewers, which averaged 782,000 whole viewers throughout that very same interval with an viewers that pays the HBO premium whereas CNN is broadly out there on fundamental cable.

BILL MAHER RAILS AGAINST TRIGGER WARNINGS IN COLLEGES, ENTERTAINMENT: ‘HOW WEAK MY COUNTRY HAS BECOME’

CNN’s comedic experiment has solely a fraction of Fox Information’ “Gutfeld!”, which averaged 1.9 million viewers throughout the identical time interval with 305,000 in the important thing demo. 

Within the “Extra time” segments, Maher takes a couple of questions submitted by viewers and discusses them together with his “Actual Time” visitors, lasting roughly ten minutes. One “Extra time” phase backfired on CNN when the community aired Maher’s visitor taking a swipe at Don Lemon for his sexist feedback about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley being previous her “prime” on account of her age.

Even when CNN landed Maher for a primetime particular, it didn’t ship a serious win for the community. Jake Tapper’s hour-long sit-down with the liberal funnyman that aired Feb. 28 reached simply 821,000 viewers, an enchancment for the vacant 9 p.m. ET time slot however nonetheless a distant third behind Fox Information’ “Hannity” with 2.four million viewers and MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight” with 1.2 million viewers.

BILL MAHER ISN’T CONFIDENT DEMOCRATS CAN BEAT TRUMP IN 2024 UNLESS BIDEN RUNS

Notably, regardless of the headlines Maher makes all year long, CNN hardly ever covers his present. In 2022, just one “Actual Time” phase was coated and the main target was largely on unbiased journalist Bari Weiss, who instructed Maher in January of final yr that she was “executed with COVID,” which sparked outrage amongst liberal CNN anchors.

For the reason that “Extra time” segments started airing in February, Maher remains to be seldom spoken about on different CNN applications except it was to advertise Tapper’s particular. 

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

CNN’s first foray into comedy got here after experiences that Licht was looking for a comic to probably fill the 9 p.m. time slot (a emptiness since CNN’s firing of Chris Cuomo in Dec. 2021), significantly following the success of “Gutfeld!”, which has shortly turn out to be the most-watched late-night present on tv, continuously outpacing CBS’ “The Late Present with Stephen Colbert” and repeatedly trouncing NBC’s “Tonight Present starring Jimmy Fallon” and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Dwell.” As the previous govt producer of “The Late Present,” Licht helped carry Colbert to the highest of late evening throughout the Trump period. 

Names that have been allegedly floated at CNN included Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah, Arsenio Corridor and Maher.

This text was initially revealed by foxnews.com. Learn the original article here.