Brian Stelter’s CNN show continues to struggle, draws smallest audience of 2021
'Reliable Sources' has failed to crack the one-million viewer plateau for five of the past six telecasts
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Left-wing pundit Brian Stelter's media show "Reliable Sources" hit another yearly low on Sunday, averaging only 885,000 viewers for its least-watched episode of 2021.
Stelter’s program has now failed to crack the one-million viewer plateau for five of the past six telecasts as the show continues to struggle.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The latest episode of "Reliable Sources" also had its smallest audience of the year among the key demographic of adults age 25-54, averaging only 178,000 viewers from the group most coveted by advertisers.
CNN’s struggling media show "Reliable Sources" with left-wing host Brian Stelter hit another yearly low on Sunday. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for CNN)
Stelter’s program dropped nine percent in the demo from last week and a staggering 72 percent from its Jan. 10 edition when CNN was in the midst of a brief ratings bump.
Fox News’ "MediaBuzz," the media affairs show which is Stelter’s direct timeslot competition, averaged 1.3 million total viewers to defeat "Reliable Sources" by 47 percent. "MediaBuzz" also saw a 32-percent advantage in the key demo.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The numbers indicate Stelter’s rhetoric against "ridiculous" criticism he faced for ignoring an attack on his own colleagues went largely unheard, until it was later mocked on social media. Stelter blamed right-wing media for pointing out he ignored news that may have contradicted CNN’s liberal agenda, but he had disregarded the news up until that point.
Stelter, who typically defends the mainstream media, raised eyebrows last week when he didn’t cover his own colleagues being chased away by a violent mob Wednesday night during demonstrations in Minnesota.
Stelter’s CNN colleagues were pelted with water bottles but he didn’t put the story in his newsletter that covers the media industry, leading to speculation he didn’t want to ruin CNN’s "peaceful protest" narrative.
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Stelter finally got around to mentioning the attack on CNN on Sunday during his lowest-rated show of the year – four days after the incident happened.
"This was a story that went viral in right-wing media. Frankly they claim CNN was covering it up, which is ridiculous," he said.