CNN’s ‘Poorly Rated’ @Soledad_OBrien Will Lose Her Show Nobody Watched

Posted on | January 30, 2013 | 61 Comments

Soledad O’Brien, America’s Least Popular Cable TV News Personality™

Jeff Zucker is making big changes at CNN, the cable-news pioneer that has fallen to third place in the ratings: Gone are longtime contributors James Carville and Mary Matalin, as well as Bill Bennett and Erick Erickson, the latter of whom has signed on with Fox News. Now we learn that America’s Least Popular Cable TV News Personality™ will be losing her morning-show spot:

CNN plans to launch a new morning show to replace the poorly rated “Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien,” sources at the network tell POLITICO.
The new show will be co-hosted by Chris Cuomo, who has just joined the network from ABC News, and likely by Erin Burnett, who currently hosts a primetime program on CNN. O’Brien’s own future at the network remains unclear.
“Soledad is very important to the network, and we’re discussing various options with her,” a CNN spokesperson told POLITICO this afternoon.

So, Cuomo and Burnett will anchor the new morning show and yet “Soledad is very important to the network” . . . how?

O’Brien is one of those people who used to work for the “Big Three” broadcast networks — in O’Brien’s case, NBC — and who was therefore automatically considered a “get” when CNN hired her in 2003. But Soledad has since flopped in every time-slot she’s had, and if she had any ratings magic, surely it would have been apparent by now, nearly 10 years into her career as a cable-news ratings albatross.

Strangely, The Atlantic‘s Alexander Abad Santos suggests the unliked O’Brien could get a primetime slot at CNN. Is Jeff Zucker that stupid?

UPDATE: When I say Soledad O’Brien is “unpopular,” here’s what I mean — Monday’s Nielsen ratings:

Fox & Friends …………………………………….. 1,003,000
MSNBC “Morning Joe” ………………………….. 412,000
CNN Headline News “Morning Express” …. 247,000
CNN “Starting Point” …………………………….. 193,000

Soledad O’Brien is not merely behind Fox and MSNBC, she’s even drawing 50,000 fewer viewers than Robin Meade on Headline News.

UPDATE II: Linked by Donald Douglas at American Power and by Ace of Spades who observes:

Now, Soledad O’Brien had crap ratings and so does Piers Morgan; but they’re keeping the portly white guy, eh?

CNN executives were quick to clarify their complaint that Soledad’s audience was “too ethnic.” Translation: “We can’t fire Soledad, because she’ll sue us for discrimination. Also, we resent the inference that we would cancel a show just because it doesn’t draw the audience of high-income young white professionals that adverstisers prefer!”

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Category: CNN

Comments

61 Responses to “CNN’s ‘Poorly Rated’ @Soledad_OBrien Will Lose Her Show Nobody Watched”

WJJ Hoge
January 30th, 2013 @ 8:17 am

I haven watched CNN since the last time I was stuck in an airport.
rosalie
January 30th, 2013 @ 8:49 am

I don’t even watch them in the airport. I take a seat that’s farthest from the TV facing the opposite direction.
robertstacymccain
January 30th, 2013 @ 9:11 am

What would CNN’s ratings be if it weren’t for their airport audience?
rosalie
January 30th, 2013 @ 9:52 am

I never thought about that. And I bet at least half would change the channel if they could.
ronk
January 30th, 2013 @ 9:57 am

maybe they could have good ratings if they were truly a ‘news’ channel instead of the mouth piece for every progressive cause.
JohnInMA
January 30th, 2013 @ 9:57 am

To be fair, CNN gets a lot of viewers on the front end of national or international crises and major events. But no one seemed to care about the station for anything routine it produced. For me, it’s easy to predict these most recent changes won’t cause a significant shift except for one: I will definitely give whatever show they assign to Jake Tapper a look. If it’s good, I’ll stick with it. Cuomo? I could care less.

We’ll see.
Becca Lower
January 30th, 2013 @ 10:16 am

I had to pick up a relative at the downtown Cincinnati Greyhound station a few weeks back, and the sole tv there was tuned to CNN. It was positioned up near the ceiling, most likely to keep one of the miscreants from absconding with it. I wish I could have changed the channel. It was the night of Piers Morgan’s horrible “gun violence” forum.
jakee308
January 30th, 2013 @ 10:20 am

Couldn’t happen to a better conniving manipulative divisive pandering race-baiting snide sneering snarky little lying witch.

(I know. Why don’t I express how I REALLY feel?)
Becca Lower
January 30th, 2013 @ 10:21 am

How common is it for a channel’s president to also be an executive producer? Read that the executive producer who left yesterday isn’t being replaced, but that Zucker will also wear that hat, in the WSJ. That’s the definition of hands-on.
jakee308
January 30th, 2013 @ 10:22 am

If they start tossing programming that doesn’t get the ratings, they won’t have anything left. Unless they start actually showing the NEWS.

What a shocka; lying leftist douchebags who lie about the conditions in the country and how great their boyfriend in the White House is; can’t get any ratings. Who’d a thunk it.
jakee308
January 30th, 2013 @ 10:23 am

Hardest hit: So called conservative Erick Erickson.

How does it feel to be included in THAT group of leftist douches who can’t get ratings, Erick?

Think maybe you share some of their “attributes”?
richard mcenroe
January 30th, 2013 @ 11:42 am

Airports, restaurants and senior care centers.
richard mcenroe
January 30th, 2013 @ 11:44 am

Well, I don’t know about you, but the first thought in my head whenever major news breaks, is “Gee, I wonder what Chris Cuomo’s take on this is…”
SDN
January 30th, 2013 @ 11:51 am

Erickson is moving to Fox.
SDN
January 30th, 2013 @ 11:53 am

“Soledad is very important to the network, and we’re discussing various options with her”

Translation: We’re discussing what will prevent her from filing discrimination lawsuits.
Wordygirl
January 30th, 2013 @ 12:01 pm

On the comparison between networks, I can believe O’Brien is lower than HLN. I actually watch HLN occasionally. Robin Mead doesn’t go for the blatantly political angle, she plays it relatively straight.
McGehee
January 30th, 2013 @ 12:50 pm

They lose Sarah Palin and gain Erick Erickson — while still having Bill O’Really and Shemp Smith.

Cable news is vaster and wastier than TV in general.
jsn2
January 30th, 2013 @ 1:53 pm

She’s the dumbest person in a position of influence on cable news.
jakee308
January 30th, 2013 @ 2:45 pm

And your point relative to what I said is . . . ?
Gerard Vanderleun
January 30th, 2013 @ 2:53 pm

And at Urban Dictionary we learn: “zucker;” Synonymous with fucker because Jeff Zucker at NBC is the dumbestmotherfucker in television.
“That dumb motherzucker tried to bump Conan’s Tonight Show to 12:05. What the Zuck?”
Gerard Vanderleun
January 30th, 2013 @ 2:54 pm

Well, if Soledad O’Brien thought she’d given her last blow-job, she was wrong. Back on your head, Soledad.
Neo
January 30th, 2013 @ 2:58 pm

If only she had had that “Dev” avatar from MSNBC …
richard mcenroe
January 30th, 2013 @ 2:58 pm

Wasn’t he the genius who decided to show “Firefly” out of sequence?
Neo
January 30th, 2013 @ 2:59 pm

NBC also ruined the Weather Channel. Everything there is bad weather, they have some story about Alaska cargo fliers.
Teresa in Fort Worth
January 30th, 2013 @ 2:59 pm

CNN obviously hates black people…..
Neo
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:02 pm

Palin is either getting back into politics or getting out completely.
RecklessProcess
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:02 pm

I was just at Wikipedia and I see someone has changed the entry for Termination to say it is defined as ‘getting a raise’. Poor Soledad cannot stop herself from editing the wiki entries to match her TV lies.
Dan Gillen
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:07 pm

i almost threw the remote when I saw the weather channel was naming winter snow storms.
MrCaniac
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:07 pm

To be fair to Soledad for losing to “Morning Express”, Robin Meade is pretty hawt.
Dan Gillen
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:08 pm

nope that was Fox. I don’t think Zucker has ever worked for them.
JeffWeimer
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:11 pm

I want to upvote this comment about a million times. Is that wrong?
Sweet63
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:14 pm

But….diversity!!
pmanner
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:15 pm

Depends on how many people are stuck in ICUs and can’t reach the remote.
gracepmc
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:23 pm

Fox also added Kucinch
Don Burton
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:32 pm

Turning off the airport CNN would seem to be the best use for the TV B Gone product, if it actually works.
effinayright
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:38 pm

Discussing options? You mean like, “Either PUT out for us, or we CALL you a cab.”???
Finrod Felagund
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:39 pm

NBC also ruined the Weather Channel.

No kidding, I nearly lost it when I saw they were showing ‘news’ from MSNBC. It used to be a safe channel to always tune to, not any more.
economist
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:43 pm

Last time I was in an Airport they were actually showing Fox. Same thing with my Bank which has a feed for waiting customers, switched over from CNN some time ago.
McGehee
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:53 pm

She’s not getting out, according to her interview after leaving Fox.
whiteinterloper
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:54 pm

Not anymore.
Knitebane
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:56 pm

You need one of these. 🙂

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/9a06/
Andrew Fry
January 30th, 2013 @ 3:58 pm

Did you ever see that movie “Powder”? It’s about a kid with a sort of
EMP field disrupting all electronics around him. Everytime I see Wolf Blitzer pop up on a TV in
the airport I wish for that power.
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January 30th, 2013 @ 4:23 pm

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rosalie
January 30th, 2013 @ 4:26 pm

That’s good to hear.
Captain Obvious
January 30th, 2013 @ 4:48 pm

” Is Jeff Zucker that stupid?” He took over NBC when it was #1 and drove it to #4, what do you think?
Daily Kenn
January 30th, 2013 @ 5:16 pm

Sitting here waiting for my phone to ring.
So far: nothing.

Call me Zuck. I can do the show via skype.
aliswell
January 30th, 2013 @ 5:58 pm

I’d rather watch the planes taking off and landing.
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