CNN’s ‘The Lead with Jake Tapper’ has shed 75% of its audience since January

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Media top headlines June 28

A reporter accused of passing along misleading information about Gov. Ron DeSantis' response to the condo collapse and ABC's Jonathan Karl urging Sen. Joe Manchin to use his leverage to pressure Republicans round out today's top media headlines.

CNN’s "The Lead with Jake Tapper" has shed a staggering 75% of its audience since the liberal network experienced a January spike in viewers. 

Tapper’s program averaged 2.8 million viewers in January but settled for only 706,000 in the 4 p.m. ET timeslot from May 31 through June 23, losing three-quarters of its audience in the process. Tapper’s second-quarter viewership is down 49% compared to the first quarter. 

CNN’s "The Lead with Jake Tapper" has shed a staggering 75 percent of its audience since the liberal network experienced a January spike in viewers. 

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While January featured a historic news cycle with the Capitol riot, the inauguration of President Biden and the lead-up to former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, his direct timeslot competition on Fox News has lost a fraction of the viewers that "The Lead" has. "Your World with Neil Cavuto" has kept 1.1 million of the 1.5 million that tuned in during the jam-packed first month of 2021. 

Tapper has also lost significant viewers among the key news demographic of adults age 25-54, dropping 79% of January’s audience during the first three weeks of June in his timeslot. Tapper’s show is down 47% in the second quarter compared to Q1 among the category most coveted by advertisers. 

In April, CNN awarded Tapper with an extra hour and expanded the show from 4-6 p.m. ET but the move hasn’t paid off in the ratings department for the struggling network. "The Lead" averaged only 799,000 viewers during the 5-6 p.m. ET window through June 23, while Fox News’ "The Five" averaged 2.6 million during the same timeslot to beat Tapper by a whopping 229%. 

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Tapper’s show is billed as a balanced newscast but is a far cry from CNN's original just-the-facts approach to journalism. Tapper, a frequent tweeter who is often critical of Republicans, suggested in May that he himself has not changed as a journalist since the pre-Trump era and that it's the GOP that has deviated from "normal political behavior." 

Tapper may claim that he hasn't had a transformation as a news anchor, but his constant condemnation of Republicans would indicate otherwise. After it was projected that Trump would lose the 2020 presidential election, the CNN anchor declared that for tens of millions of Americans, the "long national nightmare is over."

Tapper even tried to convince Republican congressional candidate Sean Parnell not to run against incumbent Democrat Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb last year, suggesting that the U.S. Army combat veteran would be better off running in a safer district for Republicans. Multiple people close to Parnell considered Tapper’s move an attempt to interfere with an election. 

Since then, the CNN anchor has been accused of throwing his staff "under the bus" over inconsistencies when it comes to booking guests on his programs and attempted to shame Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., for drafting a bipartisan bill with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to combat sexual assault in the military.

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Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.