CNN’s new morning lineup debuted last week, and the ratings were about on par with “American Morning.”
Two notes: “Early Start” and “Starting Point” had soft launches, without a lot of fanfare or publicity, so the network likely had modest expectations. In addition, the ratings data we have is only from 6-9 AM, and thus does not include the 5-6AM hour, which would likely have been lower-rated than the later hours.
CNN averaged 225,000 total viewers and 90,000 adults 25-54 Jan. 2-6. By comparison, the channel averaged 228,000 total viewers and 93,000 demo viewers during the same week in 2011. The strongest day in total viewers was Wednesday, the day after the Iowa Caucus, and the best day in the demo was Friday.
The new lineup placed fourth after Fox News, MSNBC and HLN, though CNN topped HLN in total viewers on Wednesday, and in both total and demo viewers on Friday. The ratings for this week so far show very similar numbers.