Former CNN host Don Lemon drew his lowest morning show ratings as the year began, but things got worse when he made controversial comments about GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
Lemon began 2023 struggling to attract viewers to his new morning show, CNN This Morning. He had left his prime-time TV slot in late 2022 and insisted on-air that it was a “promotion.”
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But in February, Lemon would insult Haley, saying she was “past her prime” in his reaction to her announcing a bid for the White House.
“This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable,” Lemon commented. “I think it’s the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians are suddenly not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry. When a woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
Those comments saw him benched and directed to undergo “formal training.” Lemon would apologize and say he was “committed to doing better.” However, CNN parted ways with the morning host in April.
By June, CNN CEO Chris Licht was also let go after just more than a year on the job. In July, Lemon’s former morning show co-host, Kaitlan Collins, was promoted to a prime-time TV slot with her own show, The Source. In early December, the network launched new programming with the King Charles show featuring co-hosts Gayle King and former NBA star Charles Barkley. Its debut delivered CNN’s lowest prime-time debut in a decade.
The network shake-ups did little to help CNN top its competition of Fox News and MSNBC.
In comparing October 2023 to the year prior, the network improved 16% in total prime-time viewers and 25% in the prime-time key demographic of ages 25-54, according to ratings data. Yet, the growth placed CNN at No. 8 among basic cable in total prime-time viewers and No. 10 in the prime-time key demographic that month.
Fox News has maintained its position as the top-rated cable news network in total viewers and the 25-54 key demographic for nearly three straight years.
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The year also saw CNN close its original headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, in October. The CNN Center was sold in 2021 by AT&T, the network’s former parent company, to Florida-based real estate firms CP Group and Rialto Capital Management for about $164 million in an effort to cut costs.
The network moved its operations a few miles north to Warner Bros. Discovery’s Techwood Turner Broadcasting campus.
