CNN at 9: Tapper Doesn’t Take The Lead


week tapper smerconishWith the week’s ratings out, the results are that Jake Tapper and  The Lead failed to surpass any of Michael Smerconish’s demos in the week-over-week. Although Graph 1 does show that both shows followed similar trends in their weekday programming. Spikes on Monday before slowing down on Tuesday, a spike on Wednesday, and then its gradual decrease from Thursday to Friday. On Wednesday for Smerconish, the demo hit 401 however it was not Smerconish. Wolf Blitzer anchored coverage of the Fort Hood shootings as Smerconish was pre-empted. Although Smerconish’s higher ratings throughout the week could be contributed to breaking news. CNN’s coverage of flight MH370 led to higher ratings which have since lowered as a whole for the network.

April 8 week Tapper

Graph 2 shows that The Lead was pretty average compared to the rest of CNN’s primetime. Smerconish tended to be in line with the CNN primetime average, however it occasionally was lower. On Thursday, Anderson Cooper 360 was an outlier for the programming and caused its average to rise. Tapper’s demo numbers was similar to Chicagoland, which aired at 10 P.M. that night.tapper compare

Graph 3 shows the comparison of The Lead at 4 P.M. and 9 P.M. Unsurprisingly, the primetime airing gained larger viewership, but the real story is in the difference. There was a smaller difference for Tuesday and on Friday, the afternoon airing beat the primetime airing. Both airings were live throughout the week.Tapper competitionChart 4 shows the comparison of The Lead to its cable news competitors, The Kelly File on Fox News and The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Neither Tapper nor Maddow beat Kelly in the demo, although there was a battle between the two for second place. Tapper got second place on Monday and Wednesday, while Maddow got second on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.


About Tyler

Tyler is the chief media reporter for TKNN, with the news organization since its founding in November of 2010. He has previously served as chief political reporter and chief political anchor for TKNN.

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