CNN “It Girl” Kaitlan Collins doesn’t seem to be the ratings savior the struggling network had hoped she’d be.
Collins — who has risen from White House correspondent to morning show co-host to a primetime anchor chair in less than a year — finished last in the 9 p.m. slot in her official debut Monday.
The 31-year-old’s new show, “The Source with Kaitlan Collins,” drew 540,000 total viewers and 83,000 in the advertiser-coveted 25 to 54-year-old demographic, according to Nielsen ratings data.
That marked a 13% dip in total viewers for the same day last year, and a 44% decline for viewers aged 25 to 54 — the lowest for a 9 p.m. show on Monday for the already ratings-challenged news channel since January.
Collins was elevated to primetime in June in one of Chris Licht’s final moves before the CNN boss resigned following a scathing article in The Atlantic.
Monday marked Collins’ sixth consecutive week anchoring the 9 p.m. hour. She has “seen growth” in the time slot over the period, a CNN source said.
According to the insider, from June 5 to June 30, Collins averaged 702,000 total viewers and 152,000 viewers in the demo. The network had averaged 481,000 viewers with a rotating cast of anchors at 9 p.m. during the first quarter of the year.
Still, CNN was crushed in Monday’s ratings by its 9 p.m. rivals. MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” reeled in 2.4 million viewers and 231,000 viewers in the demographic. Fox News’ “Hannity” garnered just under 2 million viewers and 188.000 demo viewers.
CNN declined to comment.
Collins’s Monday show came in second among her CNN primetime colleagues. “Anderson Cooper’s 360,” brought in 600,000 viewers..
Cooper, however, was also in last place in the time slot, trailing “Fox News Tonight” with 1.7 million viewers and MSNBC’s “All in with Chris Hayes,” which scored 1.2 million viewers.
CNN has been roiled by controversy since last year’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, whose CEO installed Licht with marching orders to pivot the network away from the left-leaning coverage under ousted CEO Jeff Zucker.
Licht teamed Collins with Poppy Harlow and Don Lemon on a revamped morning show last November, but the experiment quickly blew up.
As reported by The Post, Lemon allegedly browbeat Collins for interrupting him on air last December, setting off a series of gaffed by the longtime anchor that led to his firing in April.
Collins was at the center of another CNN controversy after she was tapped to moderate the network’s controversial town hall with former President Donald Trump in May.
The struggling network did get a boost in viewership from the explosive May 10 town hall, drawing 3.3 million viewers, but sparked anger from staffers and longtime viewers for giving the 2024 presidential frontrunner a forum.
CNN’s ratings bump was short-lived, cratering a whopping 25% in May compared to the prior year, according to Nielsen.
After Licht’s ignominious exit, Zaslav vowed to launch a nationwide search for a replacement. In the meantime, the network is being run by a troika of veteran executives.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
