Cable News Faces End of Election That’s Been ‘Manna From Heaven’

By Mark Joyella 

In 35 days, this weird, historic election will come to an end.

For the cable news networks, that means bracing for a hard reality—an end to the huge audiences that have flocked to live coverage of the campaign rallies, debates and endless fiery panel discussions of the battle that has boiled down to Trump vs. Clinton.

“Undeniably, the political coverage is working for all the cable news networks,” writes Margaret Sullivan in The Washington Post. “Ratings out last week show sky-high viewership for all three — and that’s manna from heaven in an industry whose numbers were tanking in 2014 and where average viewers are over 60 — while millennials cut the cord and stay glued to their phones.”

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While Hillary Clinton‘s emergence as the Democratic nominee has earned her a place in history, it’s Donald Trump who has been supercharged ratings for cable news. Sullivan argues CNN under Jeff Zucker deserves credit for fueling Trump’s rise with outsized coverage. But everyone got in on the act:

Of course, CNN was hardly alone. Fox News, too, has been a megaphone for Trump for many months. And nearly every news outlet has played a part — from newspaper front pages to NPR to the network nightly news.

Ratings. Clicks. Audience. Say what you will about Trump as a human being or a potential leader of the free world, he has an ineffable ability to get attention. He has called himself a “ratings machine,” and in the world of TV, ratings equal profit.

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