Viewers doing a 180 on Anderson Cooper's '360'

Kay Jones, a producer on CNN's Anderson Cooper's "AC360," recently blogged on the show's website that she "deserve[s] the month of May off." Well, she might as well take it because Cooper's fan base is doing just that already.

Cooper's ratings have been in a sharp decline all year, and so far the month of May is no exception. According to Nielsen, the audience for the 10-11 p.m. hour of his show so far this month is 933,000 viewers. This is the first time he's fallen below the one-million mark since the dog days of last August. Anderson is losing almost 20% of his lead-in from Larry King and is in danger of being passed in the ratings by MSNBC's 10 p.m. repeat of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." Since the start of 2009, Cooper has lost one-third of his audience.

CNN has invested heavily into marketing Cooper as the face of the network. The hype has never really translated into commercial success, and now that MSNBC is suddenly competitive, CNN finds itself being flanked on the right and the left.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Anderson Cooper. Credit: Andy Kropa / Associated Press

Comments

[Gail]

Of couse Anderson Cooper's ratings have gone down, and I'm one of the people switching to MSNBC in the mid- to late morning and late at night. CNN's shows, including Cooper's, have gone downhill over the past year, because too much of what they're "reporting" is repeated from stuff they've already broadcast. They've also gotten on the sensationalization bandwagon, devoting far too much time to stories related to missing persons, the alleged "Craigslist" killer, and whatever else they decide is "breaking" news or something they think viewers must know, right now. Note to CNN: You're boring. There's only so many times I can listen to the same story in one day, and what's especially bothersome is that sometimes, they repeat the same story on multiple days. Why would I want to watch the same news over and over again? More importantly, why does CNN think I'd want to watch recycled news?

[R. A. Healy]

In show business you either have it or you don't. It was evident from the start that Cooper didn't have it. End of story.

[Suzee]

I'm one of those tuning out on Cooper Anderson's show after Larry King airs here on the West Coast. Cooper Anderson's news is just a re-tread of what Larry's topic has been OR news I already heard during the day. Anderson's conversations with the woman co-host (can't recall her name) is too casual and not professional enough as she shrugs her shoulders and makes facial gestures while trying to project why someone said something. If CNN wants Anderson to have gravitas with news, he needs to deliver it as actual news like a serious news anchor a la Tom Brokaw and not a pundiit serving up warmed over magazine fare.

[Daws]

Gail got it exactly right. Cooper's show has devolved into a pastiche of overhyped stories that are as relevant as day-old donuts and just as sugary. The presentation seems designed for an audience with an attention span of 20 seconds. The host comes across as disinterested and not a little depressed. This isn't news, it's News Product.

I don't blame Cooper, but the executives, marketing researchers and producers responsible for this format should be fired. Or better yet, farmed out to G4 TV.

[brad]

He's just to darn boring! It seems that everything that CNN does is just too rigid, do any of them know how to have any fun? Wolf Blitzer is a dud too . . .

[Jlwils]

You are kidding, Cooper for Olbermann? How about FOX News Network? They are kicking butt on the cable news network. I think folks are tired or hearing from the Coopers and Olbermann's of the world and want to hear the truth.

[Jack Henry]

CNN = Too many bloviating "celebrity" reporters with overwrought graphics displays and way too much tabloid-style reporting. The site reads like the Enquirer. The network is unwatchable. Their incompetence is what helped create Fox News.

[GM Owner]

CNN is fast becoming like every other news network- Crap News Network. It's all fluff and no substance. You have the Situation Room w/ Wolf blitzer, Lou Dobbs and his daily diatribe, Campbell Brown's No Bias, No Bull being hosted by (too black for me, sorry), Roland Martin, then there's Larry King, and finally, AC 360.

I'm really tired of the same stories all day long. On tv, on the web, on my cell phone and satellite radio. You can watch a story on Wolf Blitzer, only to see it two or three hours later. It's just as bad a watching network news programs. What you saw at noon, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, you'll see again at 8, 9, 10, and 11. All fluff and no substance. News journalism isn't what it used to be.

CNN's big thing was getting more people to sign up for twitter and to slam Ashton (I'm now a nobody married to a hag) Kutcher for the most sign ups. Wow, and that's news why? How about reporting on whatever news comes of the Reuters and AP wire?

Oh wait, not even the LA Times does that. My bad!

[James Andrews]

you call MSNBC competitive. Only when the network (CNN) with half the viewers of Fox drops 33% does MSNBC become competitive. That is not MSNBC climbing, it is both the Obama networks losing views by the day, and night. Poor Cambell Brown will not have an audiance to return to when ole Roland is done running them off.

[dan]

Ac is unwatchable.I have never seen an anchor try so hard to seem interested in his stories.His sqinting and fumbling for words is unreal.He seems nervous and dying to get to the end of the story.Always rushed.He cant think on his feet or in the moment.He looks almost stunned to be in front of the lens.Hes a lousy anchor.Hes worse than larry king who at least is comfortable on camera.

[Dirk]

I like Anderson, but at the same time, I'm just not drawn to his show. He's just a bit too bland.

[Jan]

Maybe if Mr. Cooper and colleagues would concentrate on stories in their own backyard instead of running all over the world chasing after "the story", folks would come back to them. There are 11 native american nations in this country that have no land base because of treaty disputes between Federal & State governments. Why doesn't one of them look into this? Mr. Cooper has all the earmarks of a young Walter Cronkite and it's time he starts focusing on America and it's issues.

[Steve]

AC sold his soul to his corporate masters.
He lost any credibility he had when he put out a couple shrill columns last fall in support of TARP.
We know what a failure that has turned out to be!

AC deserves to be ignored. Let that be a warning to Pravda ...err CNN.

[Cottage Industry]

I am fascinated that you can do a whole article about ratings that simply ignores the fact that Fox News is dominating almost all significant time slots. Like them or not, denying their success is disengenuous and dishonest journalism.

[kegtron]

CNN needs more Wolf Blitzer.

[Cottage Industry]

I am fascinated that you can do a whole article about ratings that simply ignores the fact that Fox News is dominating almost all significant time slots. Like them or not, denying their success is disengenuous and dishonest journalism.

[RonBH]

Politics aside, I've never liked Anderson Cooper. I couldn't quite understand what all the fuss (re:buzz?) was about. I mean it seemed like he came out of nowhere--at a pretty young age, too. Must have been his NY connections, yeah? So, it is somewhat gratifying to read that others are on my side of the park. Thank God. I thought it was me. But, it gets me to thinking. Why would Jay Leno book Anderson Cooper on his show as he did just last week? Was the CNN promotion department working overtime to crank-up AC's public profile? Did I miss something here? I guess the ratings say no.

[Lisa]

So tired of Fox promoters going on and on about "the truth" on Fox and how it's the strongest network. Yeah, Fox corners the market for ultraconservative groupthink. The rest of the cable and television news networks have to compete with each other for the viewers interested in more dependable, objective and trustworthy journalism. These viewers far outnumber the Fox fans, but they are split among many different outlets.

[Newsie]

CNN got rid of most of it's journalists, and it wonders why it's not doing well in the ratings? The execs there didn't need to create a hologram, they had one in Cooper all along. No depth, No perspective.

[Fedup with lies]

Give us a break! Faux News better known as Fox News is about Obama bashing and lies...lies...lies...lies. It's so sad how 25% of the electorate are so ignorant and racist that they allow these illiterate, ignorant millionaires, ie Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly who could care less about their families to trot out such crap and untrues all in the name of trying to bring down the popularity as well as the honest efforts of this administration. Here is a President fighting for those mostly poor to low middle class mostly whites for more affordable better health care, and who is having to clean up the mess from their GREAT, WONDERFUL George Bush and Company, and all they can do is talk about secession, paying more taxes, and socialism in the most negative terms when the ones who are serving this crap to them don't give a damn about their health care, or the fact that jobs were leaving this country for the last 8 years under BUSH. This just didn't start with this administration. But, OH I forgot...IT'S ALL OBAMA'S FAULT. I wonder why these 25% electorates didn't raise hell and have BS Tea Parties when Bush and Company took this country into an unauthorized war which all of our tax paying dollars have been supportiing. I'm still waiting for the Weapons of Mass Destruction. Oh yeah, that was okay because he, meaning Bush and Cheney are WHITE so what they're doing must be the best thing. It's so pitiful. I don't agree with everything this administration wants to do or hasn't done yet because I for one want them to investigate the Bush administration on these torture charges. Too many men and women lost their lives on a lie. Oh, and by the way I'm a white bread myself. The difference is I THINK FOR MYSELF, and am not caught up in a lynch mob mentality like many of my brethren.

[Dood]

The 11pm RE-RUN of Bill O'Reilly's 8pm show has three times as many viewers as CNN and MSNBC.

CNN and MSNBC are both niche networks now. They are both just Obama fanboy channels. They have nothing else to offer.

[Travis]

Not suprised by the drop in ratings. Anderson/CNN needs to add some new producers to his show. By the time he comes on its another re-hash of what we have heard before-- not to mention too much on the light stuff. Nothing 'hard-hitting to grab one's attention.

When the 'hook' goes, so does the audience.

[nate]

I just watch linktv for documentaries and news now..at least there it's non-biased and doesn't have some writer behind the scenes wondering how they can twist someone's tragic story enough to make it more noticeable than the next.

AC's totally got integrity and class and all of that, but his content is DRY. The good part is his interviews, he gives that condescending eye and he's got that unbreakable stare that makes me want to tell the TV some deep dark secret. That's definetely where he stands out, but again, he needs better writers or something to keep people coming back.

[Jollyjo]

Yah...360 is just a fast talking guy who often times just bores me to death. Wish we would see less of him (and others too like Lou Dobbs) on CNN.

[undoctored]

Why avoid the obvious? What makes CNN so painstaking to watch are the constant commercial breaks (about every ten minutes) and the "teasers" leading up to them. I firmly believe that the only reason they have Jack Cafferty on is to keep the viewers glued to the screen waiting for him to give the results of one his idiotic polls. Jack, here's a question you could put to your viewers: "DO YOU THINK THERE ARE TOO MANY COMMERCIALS ON CNN?" Don't hold your breath thinking he will because his corporate bosses would dump him in a minute.