CNN’s “Stroumboulopoulos” debuted in its permanent Friday evening time period last week, and–as promised–we have the ratings. The program averaged 303,000 total viewers, and 76,000 viewers adults 25-54 Friday at 11 PM.
Those numbers put the program third in cable news in total viewers, behind a repeat of “The O’Reilly Factor” on FNC and “MSNBC Investigates” on MSNBC. In the demo it placed fourth, just behind “Showbiz Tonight” on HLN. The full scoreboard will be up shortly.
The Friday premiere was up in total viewers from its Sunday debut last week, but down slightly in the demo. The Sunday premiere was up against tough competition, with the NBA Finals, the Tony Awards, “Mad Men” and “Falling Skies” all going head to head with Strombo’s program. Friday’s show did not face any tough TV competition, though it is a time period that likely had a much smaller potential viewer pool than Sunday saw.
Compared to Fridays at 11 PM season to date, the debut was down -43% in total viewers, and -63% in the demo.
The silver lining is that because it is a time period with such little competition, there is room to grow, but tweaks will be necessary to help draw a new audience in. The other good news for CNN is that because it is not producing the program itself (Embassy Row Productions is producing it for the channel), the cost is likely much lower than if it done were in-house.