CNN Press Room

CNN Has Second Most-Watched Year Ever in 2021

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CNN Ends Year as Top Five Cable Network Across the Board 

CNN Has Second Largest Share of Cable News Audience in 21 Years 

CNN Original Series are Top-Rated on Sundays 

CNN Beats MSNBC in 2021 in Every Daypart, including Total Day, Prime Time, Dayside & Weekends

CNN Surpasses MSNBC in Demo for Second Consecutive Year in Prime Time; Eighth Year in Total Day

CNN will end 2021 enjoying its second most-watched year ever, dating back to its launch in 1980. Its total viewer audience is second only to 2020, meaning the last two years have been CNN’s two most-watched years ever.

In addition, CNN will also close out 2021 as a top five network in all of cable (not just news) in all dayparts. In Total Day, the network ranks #3, in dayside #2, in M-F prime #4, and M-Su prime #5 in all of cable in 2021.

CNN Original Series and CNN Films had banner years, as well, ranking #1 or #2 in their time periods in either total viewers and/or adults 25-54 this year.  CNN had the youngest audience in cable news in Total Day and prime time and reached the largest cumulative TV audience for a record-setting 20 years. CNN is pacing to have the second largest share of the cable news audience in 21 years.

CNN caps off the year, beating MSNBC across all dayparts, including Total Day, prime time, dayside, weekends and on Sunday mornings in the key demographic adults 25-54. CNN will top MSNBC in prime time for the second straight year and in Total Day for the eighth year in the demo 25-54. On weekends, CNN outperforms MSNBC for all 24 hours on both Saturdays and Sundays.

In 4Q-21, CNN surpassed MSNBC once again in Total Day for the 10thconsecutive quarter and in M-Su prime for the 8th consecutive quarter among 25-54. In daytime, CNN was ranked #3 among all of cable (not just news) and was ahead of MSNBC for the 37th consecutive quarter in 25-54.

(Of note:  All of cable news dayparts and programs are down double digits vs. 2020 due to heightened viewership during the COVID-19 pandemic and presidential election year a year ago.)

Data is from 12/28/20-12/16/21

 

Year End Dayparts

 

Year End Weekday Program Ratings 

 

Year End Weekend Program Ratings

New Day Weekend with Christi Paul and Boris Sanchez surpassed MSNBC in total viewers and/or the demo on Saturdays and Sundays in 2021 during its respective time period. On Saturday mornings,  Smerconish outperformed MSNBC in both total viewers (832k vs. 760k) and in the key demo 25-54 (147k vs. 86k) this year.  On weekend afternoons/evenings, CNN Newsroom with Fredricka Whitfield, CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta and CNN Newsroom with Pamela Brown ranked either #1 or #2 in total viewers and/or the demo 25-54 on Saturdays and Sundays in 2021.

On Sunday mornings, all CNN programs outperformed MSNBC this year in both total viewers and the demo 25-54 including: Inside Politics with Abby Phillip (8am), State of the Union with Jake Tapper/Dana Bash (9am, noon), Fareed Zakaria GPS (10am, 1pm) and Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter (11am).  Each program also topped MSNBC by double digits in the demo 25-54.

 

2021 CNN Original Series 

In 2021, CNN premiered nine CNN Original Series with each of them ranking #1 or #2 in cable news during their respective time periods in either total viewers and/or in the demo adults 25-54; while also averaging record highs and attracting younger cable news audiences.  In 2021, CNN claimed five of the Top 20 non-fiction Historical series in all of cable among adults 25-54.  Also this year, three series ranked in the Top 10 of all CNN Original Series on record in total viewers including Tucci (#2), Lincoln (#4) and History of the Sitcom (#7).

The 2021 CNN Original Series include:

 

2021 CNN Films/CNN Films Presents/CNN Films Shorts

CNN Films also had a strong ratings year, with each film ranking #1 or #2 in cable news during their respective time periods this year in total viewers and/or the key demos including:

(Note: Original Series & Films claims based on most recent Live+3 and Live+7 data) 

 

2021 Special Programming

CNN Special Reports (CSR) and Fareed Zakaria Specials, the network’s in-house documentary units focusing on in-depth and investigative reporting of major issues and events, aired nearly 30 long form hours on a vast array of topics in 2021.  CSR/FZ Specials averaged 233k across all reports in the demo adults 25-54, ranking #1 in cable news for the year.

Key Breaking News Events:

CNN was either #1 or #2 in cable news during key breaking news events, easily topped MSNBC and/or the broadcast networks:

Town Halls: 

Some Other Key Programming Specials:

 

Median Age

2021TD, CNN’s TV audience is four years younger than Fox and MSNBC in Total Day; four years younger than Fox and five years younger than MSNBC in Mon-Sun Prime; as well as five years younger than Fox and six years younger than MSNBC in Mon-Fri Prime. Fox and MSNBC are all pacing at their oldest yearly median age on record in Total Day.

Cable News TV Reach
CNN continues to reach the largest cumulative TV audience of any cable news network so far this year among both total viewers (56 million) and adults 25-54 (17 million), making this the 20th consecutive year on record for the network.

Multiplatform Reach:

CNN reaches more people in the U.S. than any other news brand across TV and digital among total viewers (175 million), 25-54 (85 million) and 18-34 (41 million).

Note that Comscore Xmedia data is delivered on a delayed schedule and therefore the above reflects Jan-Sep 2021.

Digital to TV Lift:

CNN Digital viewing added a 2% lift (or 17k) to CNN’s P2+ 788k total day TV audience for a total of 805 thousand across platforms in 2021.

Of note: Nielsen Year End Data is from 12/28/20-12/16/21.  Nielsen will release final year end data after the New Year and this will updated on CNNPressroom.com

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