Yes, you read that headline correctly. On Wednesday, CNN’s hideously-rated New Day had its worst viewership of the year as, according to Nielsen Media Research, it fetched only 304,000 total viewers and 63,000 of those via the 25-54 demo. Among the shows that drew more people on Wednesday, they included Discovery’s Moonshiners, ESPN’s Get Up, History’s Counting Cars, and Game Show Network’s People Puzzler and Family Feud.
In the head-to-head ratings, New Day lost to the 799,000 total views and 87,000 audience demo for MSNBC’s Morning Joe and was blown out of the water by 1.319 million total viewers and 264,000 demo crowd for the Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends. Airing at the same time, ESPN’s Get Up with Mike Greenberg eked out a win with 323,000 total viewers and 140,000 in the demo.
Moving on to other parts of the day, two episodes of Moonshiners had more than doubled New Day as they pulled in 747,00 total viewers (and 266,000 in the demo) and the other received 654,000 total viewers and 217,000 in the demo. A third episode wasn’t able to double the CNN snoozer in total viewers, but it still had a healthy win at 455,000 total viewers while still tripling them in the demo (190,000).
Pawn Stars spinoff Counting Cars still cleaned up as its primetime episode had 552,000 total viewers and 171,000 in the demo. No word on what Pawn Stars guys would be able to get if someone tried to sell New Day in the Las Vegas pawn shop.
With New Day largely a bitter and divisive show, it was no surprise that far more family-friendly shows pulled more people as People Puzzler (a show about pop-culture crossword puzzles sponsored by People magazine) snagged 590,000 total viewers and 74,000 in the demo and syndicated reruns of Steve Harvey’s Family Feud drew 321,000 total viewers.
To make matters even worse, Wednesday’s record low beat out the previous one, which was…Tuesday (which had 344,000 total viewers and 65,000 viewers in the 25-54 age range).
And on that day, New Day lost in total viewers and the demo to shows like A&E’s Storage Wars (420,000 total and 104,000), Discovery’s Secrets in the Ice (375,000 and 101,000), and MTV’s Teen Mom (484,000 and 261,000).
Newsmax’s Greg Kelly Reports also pulled ahead of New Day’s 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. Eastern hours on both Tuesday and Wednesday, beating them in total viewers with 367,000 on Tuesday and 370,000 on Tuesday.
Not to be left out, another Newsmax show flexed its muscles as early-evening show Spicer & Co. outdrew New Day’s first two hours on Wednesday with 290,000 and Tuesday’s first-hour thanks to an audience of 315,000.
No matter how you slice or which off-the-beaten-path show you measure, life isn’t and hasn’t been peachy over in Zuckerville for quite some time. But with a poisonous network hellbent on dehumanizing anyone who opposes them, it’s a safe bet that the ratings will continue to sag.