Pretty Telling: Ugly Ratings for CNN’s Rupert Murdoch Documentary

Why is CNN making major changes? A million complicated reasons, of course. When there’s a big shift for a media company, factors from corporate culture to economics and more are at play. But ratings are obviously part of any directional decision by a network. Especially when those numbers are swan-diving to oblivion. Which is why the poor performance of CNN’s Rupert Murdoch documentary this weekend is demonstrative.

For whatever portion of the rationale behind Chris Licht‘s new regime at CNN that’s related to or focused on ratings, the weak reception for this holdover show from the old school is somewhat of a “There, you see?” moment.

CNN’s The Murdochs: Empire of Influence is a limited documentary series originally created for the quickly abolished CNN+ streaming service. The promo for the show brags that it was produced “with Left/Right and The New York Times” and is based on the “riveting New York Times Magazine article ‘How Rupert Murdoch’s Empire of Influence Remade the World.'”

Left/Right is the production company co-founded by Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver that’s behind the new Apple docuseries Gutsy, starring Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

New York Times Magazine

In the demo and total viewers, The Murdochs premiered below the prior week, the prior year, the Q3 averages, and surely below expectations. Not to mention behind a particularly pertinent competitor.

Between 9 pm and 11 pm eastern on Sunday, when the first two episodes aired, CNN saw 510k in total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That’s down about 18.5% vs. the third quarter average of 626k in that time slot on Sunday and down about 25% on the year.

It was worse in the key 25 to 54 demo, coming in with 83k. That’s around a 17% dip from the 3rd quarter average, and a whopping 38.9% on the year.

Comparing against the prior Sunday we see a similar cratering, dropping 39% from September 18th’s 834k, and 38% in the demo, down from 134k. Versus this Sunday last year, down 36% in total viewers and 46% in the demo. So almost half.

CNN’s August 23 press release that the show would air on the cable network came only days after the news broke that Brian Stelter, who is prominently featured in The Murdochs, was leaving and that Reliable Sources was cancelled. Stelter’s ouster was widely considered to be, as Mediaite’s Colby Hall put it, the “clearest sign” of the new direction under Discovery and Licht.

On a channel that has spent a great deal of time talking about Fox News, Reliable Sources stood out for the volume of focus on the Murdoch-owned competitor.

That competitor, by way of comparison, pulled 950k in total viewers between 9 and 11, according to Neilsen, and 111k in the demo. That beats CNN’s premiere and MSNBC’s total (301k) combined.

That’s not to say that covering another network is a guaranteed ratings loser. Naturally, the style and delivery, the messenger, and other component factors contribute to audience tune-out. The tone and tenor of coverage at CNN are as much on trial as the subject matter, in other words.

As for that subject matter, it’s fine to note that a news and opinion network doing a whole documentary series about how another news network’s founder is basically the villain from HBO’s Succession isn’t necessarily a breach of some great journalistic mores, especially if it’s legitimate, factual, and actually newsworthy. But that doesn’t mean it’s a great look.

And while, in theory, there’s nothing wrong with a good doom documentary, complete with sinister black and white close-ups and ominous music to highlight the object of fear, there’s nothing to say it’s a good fit either.

Colby Hall noted that the Us vs. Them footing comes close to CNN self-positioning as “the left’s version” of what they accuse Fox News of being to the political right. And more simplistically, there’s aphoristic truth at play. When everything is an emergency, nothing is. There can only be so many skies falling.

Appearance is almost everything in media. And the appearance that CNN has projected since 2016 has been on the outs of late, both with viewers and the new management. Maybe this latest example isn’t proof in the pudding, but it’s at least evidence that the end of some eras is nothing to mourn. Or to keep struggling against.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.