CNN Counts On Zahn To Boost Prime Time Ratings

Atlanta Journal & Constitution ^ | 07/05/03 | Caroline Wilbert

[DPB101]

Someday soon a news channel will do the obvious. Pretty faces are fine but to hypnotize male views they need cleavage. Then they can run a crawl at the bottom of the screen with ads on it.

[Caipirabob]

And the best part is, like the also plummeting New York Times, they don't even know what their problem is. And I doubt that any Freepers will tell them.

I dunno, here at FR we've been telling them for years. To sum it all up though, I think we've seen smarter bricks...

[speedy]

Agreed. Paula will not be remembered as one of the towering intellects of our time.

[Ditter]

You are not alone in your dislike of Zahn. I was so glad when CNN hired her away from Fox. Now I don't have to watch her anymore.

[ConservativeMan55]

I feel your pain.

[krunkygirl]

It would not matter if they did know what the problem is---you (meaning Liberals) CANNOT tell the truth when your truth is so off-putting to real people...

[Nick Danger]

"It is only awkward in that we are a Porsche going 40 miles an hour."

Yeah, and a year from now they'll be going 50 if they're lucky. It could as easily turn out to be 30. This kind of churn in prime time is evidence of desperation.

Connie Chung drew an audience. Most people here probably didn't like her, but as my father used to say, "There's an @ss for every seat." Roll her out and bring in Aaron Brown, and a fair number of the Connie Chung viewers will leave. They liked Connie Chung, and Aaron Brown is a totally different kind of "viewing experience."

Whatever Aaron Brown's faults, there were bound to be some people who thought he was just The Greatest Thing.

Now some of them leave, too. Every time they churn this show, they lose some fraction of the people who liked it the way it was. How many people does CNN think are out there whose idea of a good time is to watch a cable news show? Where do they think these Paula Zahn watchers are going to come from? Fox? It is to laugh. If they haven't figured it out yet, here's a vowel: the people watching Fox do not like CNN's politics. They could put J Lo on there in a negligee... once the novelty wore off, it'd be back to O'Reilly.

Whether CNN likes it or not, their world has been forever segmented by Fox News. The conservatives are gone and they won't be back. Audiences will never again be what they were when CNN had a virtual monopoly on cable news.

AOL Time-Warner is in a world of hurt, financially. There is nothing in CNN's future but haircuts and layoffs. This producer will be driving a Yugo before Paula Zahn gets to third gear.

[7DayRepo]

Unfortunately Fox reaches far fewer households than CNN, and is increasing their subscriber base far more slowly than many would like.

There'll always be an audience for liberal pap and puffery.

[Nick Danger]

There'll always be an audience for liberal pap and puffery.

No doubt. The Democrats get their 40% even when their candidate has horns and a tail. Sometimes even when he's dead. My question is whether CNN can generate anything like the revenues it once did now that the audience for cable news is split along ideological lines. I don't see how they can. To hear this guy tell it, people who normally watch 'Friends' will stop their channel-flipper on a cable news show when they see the lovely and talented Paula Zahn interviewing some domehead from the Center For Peace. What planet did he just come from? That's why the Mindless Re-run Channel was started... to catch just those people.

I think CNN is trapped. MSNBC, in their desperation, already tried the idea of going whole-hog liberal. The mighty Phil Donahue went splat. Now they're coming the other way, trying to out-right Fox. CNN is caught between a rock and a place where there isn't actually a place. All they can really do is sit where they are, somewhat left of center, and accept whatever audience they get doing that. But it's never going to be what it was, back when they had the whole genre to themselves. It's going to be one cutback after another for those guys, until they get down to what they can really afford appealing to left-of-center news junkies.

[7DayRepo]

I understand, and I agree with pretty much all of your analysis.

As a footnote, I can only hope the broader entertainment market becomes as segmented as the cable news market. If entertainment content providers wake up en masse and say, "Hey, we can make a lot of money off of TV shows and movies that aren't anti-father, anti-family, anti-American, pro-liberal propaganda", it'll be a major victory in the culture war.

[speedy]

Liberals had an information monopoly for so long that they simply don't know how to deal with a challenge. Our side has been seasoned by years in the trenches, being villified and taunted by the Left. We had to learn how to fight, and now it is paying off. Next stop: the universities. Don't you get the feeling that liberals at some level are dimly aware that the tide has turned against them?