The Daily Beast published a report Wednesday in which it alleges internal friction at CNBC’s 7 p.m. newscast The News with Shepard Smith.
Lachlan Cartwright and Max Tani write:
At least two people with direct knowledge of the situation described Smith as having regular “temper tantrums.” When CNBC announced Smith was joining the business news channel, it tapped Sandy Cannold, a veteran TV producer, to help helm the show along with co-executive producer Sally Ramirez, a veteran of local television. But according to multiple people familiar with the matter, Cannold departed less than six months in, and clashed at times with Smith in front of staff.
AdvertisementOther employees were also frustrated when, in recent weeks, the show laid off two of the few non-white employees on its production team.
The Daily Beast is also reporting that CNBC may move one of its signature shows, Mad Money with Jim Cramer, out of its longtime home in the 6 p.m. hour, and place more news programming around Smith and in primetime with the hope the move will jumpstart the newscast’s ratings.
The News with Shepard Smith has struggled to gain traction with the masses since its highly-publicized launch last fall. It averaged just 197,000 total viewers in June 2021. The News is currently the No. 7 program on CNBC and No. 11 in the key A25-54 demo. (CNBC Business Day programming left Nielsen in 2015, but the network continues to use Nielsen to gauge primetime).
Nevertheless, the network seems quite pleased with the show.
“It’s been less than a year since we launched The News with Shepard Smith and we are incredibly proud of the high quality journalism and powerful storytelling the team produces every week night,” a CNBC spokesperson told TVNewser. “While news viewers’ habits take time to change, The News has far outperformed in the 7pm timeslot from the same time period in 2020 and in June, viewers watched 7.2 million hours across TV, digital and social platforms, which was double-digit percentage growth month-over-month.”
The spokesperson added: “The newscast will continue to create impactful content for its audience and welcome any viewer interested in learning more about the facts, the truth, The News with Shepard Smith weeknights at 7pm ET on CNBC.”