CNN lost nearly half of its audience from 2017 through 2025.
PublishedFebruary 11, 2026 5:30 PM EST•UpdatedFebruary 11, 2026 4:58 PM EST
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No network on television benefited more from Donald Trump’s first presidency than CNN. Although it remained a distant third in cable news behind Fox News and MSNBC, CNN’s openly negative coverage of the president kept the network relevant and viable.
That is not the case the second time around. A new analysis from Fox News Digital shows that CNN has lost more than 40 percent of its total day and primetime audience from 2017 to 2025.
Here are CNN’s ratings at three points in time: when Trump descended the escalator in 2015, during the first year of his presidency in 2017, and during the first year of his second term in 2025.
Primetime
2015: 711,000
2017: 1 million
2025: 573,000
Total Day
2015: 489,000
2017: 775,000
2025: 432,000
The changes CNN has undergone between 2015 and 2025 are significant.
The network has had three different presidents during that span. Under Jeff Zucker, CNN played the role of MSNBC Lite. The network was somewhat more news-oriented under Chris Licht. The channel now appears mostly directionless under Mark Thompson’s leadership.
Though often bombastic, CNN once had star power in its lineup, including Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon. Today, the most recognizable face at the network may be Scott Jennings, its resident conservative foil.
Perhaps most significantly, CNN had the Russia Hoax during Trump’s first term. The legacy media has failed to generate an equivalent narrative this time around, despite its best efforts.
A man waves a Black Lives Matter flag atop the CNN logo during a protest in response to the police killing of George Floyd outside the CNN Center on May 29, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
While cord-cutting has contributed to cable’s overall decline over the past eight to 10 years, Fox News grew 10 percent in primetime and 13 percent in total day during that same period. Its share of the cable news audience increased from 47 percent in 2017 to 63 percent in 2025.
So it is not that fewer people are watching the news. It is that fewer people are watching CNN and what remains of MS Now, formerly known as MSNBC.
There is also no obvious lever for CNN to pull that would produce an immediate rebound. Consider the major stories since 2017. At no point did CNN experience the kind of ratings spikes it once saw when casual viewers turned to the network as a breaking news destination.
That suggests CNN not only lacks a strong core audience but has also lost credibility with normie viewers.
While it has not been true for years, there was once a broad perception that CNN delivered a more balanced newscast than its competitors. Viewership patterns during recent major news events indicate that perception no longer exists.
As a result, the network is much less profitable. In a January SEC filing, parent company Warner Bros. Discovery said it expects CNN to generate $600 million in profit, down from $1 billion in 2016.
Declining profits and ratings raise questions about the network’s future. Late last year, WBD agreed to sell its studios and streaming assets to Netflix in an $83 billion deal. Netflix showed no interest in WBD’s cable assets, forcing the company to spin off CNN into a separate entity called Discovery Global.
As the recent spinoffs across mass media demonstrate, cable-only entities are viewed skeptically on Wall Street and receive limited investment from their parent companies.
At this point, CNN may be best suited for sale to a conglomerate such as Skydance Paramount, which has expressed interest in broader WBD assets.
Put bluntly, CNN needs to be stripped down and reinvented. It needs to cease to exist in its current form.
