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A14 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 31 March 2023
CNN preaches patience as ratings tank during turnaround

By DAVID BAUDER CNN expresses pride in
AP Media Writer some of the efforts, while
NEW YORK (AP) — CNN’s admitting some are duds.
leadership is preaching Last Friday, for exam-
patience even though ple, only 295,000 people
thousands of viewers are watched Jake Tapper’s
abandoning the network interview with “Ted Lasso”
during its attempted turn- star Jason Sudeikis. It was
around, with no indication less than a quarter of the
yet whether it will be re- people who saw Alex Wag-
warded. ner’s MSNBC show at the
Cable news ratings are same 9 p.m. Eastern time
down across the board slot, Nielsen said.
compared to 2022, when David Zaslav, president and
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine CEO of Warner Bros. Discov-
was fresh in the news. CNN’s ery, delivered a pep talk to
dip is most dramatic — 61% hundreds of CNN manag-
in prime time in March, with ers earlier this month to rein-
Fox News Channel down force the message that he
27% and MSNBC off by 12%, wanted to see a network
according to the Nielsen focused on the news that
company. didn’t lean any way politi-
Fox averaged 2.09 million The CNN logo is displayed at the entrance to the CNN Center in Atlanta on Feb. 2, 2022. cally.
Associated Press
viewers in prime time in CNN saw strong ratings
March, with MSNBC at 1.14 Licht’s biggest program- and CNN is reportedly close at 9 p.m. Eastern. They in- under the leadership of
million and CNN at 473,000, ming move to date, a re- to deals with CBS’ Gayle clude talks with first lady Jill Licht’s predecessor, Jeff
Nielsen said. In the key 25- vamp of “CNN This Morn- King and former NBA star Biden and Ukrainian Presi- Zucker, and Zaslav said he
54 age demographic for ing,” hasn’t borne fruit in turned sportscaster Charles dent Volodymyr Zelenskyy recognized that a more
advertisers, CNN is seeing the ratings and has been Barkley for shows that will and town halls with Virginia partisan approach could
some of its lowest numbers beset by bad publicity, in- air once a week, although Gov. Glenn Youngkin and bring more viewers and
in decades. cluding co-host Don Lem- the network wouldn’t con- one focused on the Ohio money, but that “it’s not
CNN is a year into new on’s ham-fisted reference firm that. If Licht’s bet pays train derailment. what I came here to do,”
corporate management to a woman’s prime years. off, CNN will strengthen its The news hours that follow, according to a transcript of
with Warner Bros. Discov- Changes to CNN’s day- reputation as a news brand at least for now, are led by Zaslav’s speech.
ery, which hired ex-CBS time look are imminent. Li- while also attracting view- Alisyn Camerota and Laura He said he hoped the net-
producer Chris Licht to run cht’s vision for prime time ers who are now watch- Coates. work would be able to fig-
the network. The chief goal is months away, though, ing Netflix or HGTV not just “Viewers are a bit confused ure out what is working and
has been to rebuild trust as and only beginning to competing news networks. with all of the changes, par- what isn’t.
a non-partisan news brand take shape. His plans are As those plans develop, ticularly in the prime-time He urged the managers
after years of criticism by to couple news coverage CNN’s prime-time lineup lineup,” said Jennifer Thom- to not worry about outside
former President Donald with hosts from different has largely been in flux after as, a former CNN producer noise.
Trump and his followers, worlds, including entertain- Anderson Cooper’s hour at who now teaches journal- “Ratings be damned,” he
at a time Fox and MSNBC ment, who can talk about 8 p.m. Eastern. The network ism at Howard University. said. “Let’s focus on who
have profited handsomely the news without a specific has experimented with She said CNN needs more we are. This is our mission.
by appealing to specific partisan take. Licht is ex- some interviews, events news that impacts viewers This is our legacy. And this is
points of view. ploring several possibilities, and subject-focused hours and less analysis. our journey together.”q

Melissa Joan Hart says she helped ‘tiny kids’ flee shooting

By LISA BAUMANN “We helped a class of kin- “This is our second experi-
Associated Press dergartners across a busy ence with a school shoot-
Actor Melissa Joan Hart highway,” she said, her ing with our kids being in
said she and her husband voice breaking, “that were close proximity.

helped a class of kinder- climbing out of the woods Luckily we are all OK,” she
gartners that was fleeing that were trying to, um, said.
the Nashville school shoot- escape the shooter situa- She said she recorded the
ing earlier this week. tion at their school. So we video Monday, but it was
Hart said in a video post- helped all these tiny little too raw to post that day.
ed on Instagram Tuesday kids cross the road and get “I don’t know what to
that her children attend a their teachers over there, say anymore,” she said.
school next to the private and we helped a mom re- “Enough is enough.”
Christian Covenant School. unite with her children.” A spokesperson for Hart,
She said she and her hus- Hart said she had moved to who has starred in sitcoms
band had been headed Nashville from Connecticut including “Sabrina the
to her kids’ school confer- and that her kids had at- Teenage Witch,” didn’t
ences Monday when they tended a school near San- immediately return a mes-
helped some students get dy Hook Elementary when sage from The Associ- In this Nov. 5, 2018 file photo, Melissa Joan Hart arrives at the Los
away from the shooting 26 children were shot and ated Press seeking further Angeles premiere of “Ralph Breaks the Internet.”
that killed six people. killed there in 2012. comment.q Associated Press