CNN’s ‘King Charles’ Premiere With Gayle King and Charles Barkley Is a Ratings Failure
CNN’s “King Charles,” the new weekly show hosted by Gayle King and Charles Barkley, flopped on its first broadcast, ranking among CNN’s lowest-rated primetime program premieres of the past decade.
The long-awaited premiere of the new weekly primetime series, which aired Wednesday at 10 p.m., drew only 501,000 viewers, according to Nielsen ratings for the same day.
It finished a distant third among cable news channels with highest total viewers, ranking as the smallest of all CNN’s primetime debuts this year.
“King Charles” was the brainchild of Chris Licht, the former chief executive of CNN, who was hired to revamp the network’s daytime and primetime programming.
But Licht was ousted after a scathing magazine profile alienated staff and key senior figures at the network who called for his head.
Licht’s replacement, Mark Thompson, has yet to announce any major changes as CNN continues to trail Fox News and MSNBC in the ratings.
“King Charles” was intended to take on a late-night setting, pairing “CBS Mornings” host King and NBA Hall of Famer and analyst Barkley to discuss news and culture while taking calls.
Wednesday’s pre-taped show included a jokey call from Barkley’s “Inside the NBA” co-host Shaquille O’Neal that wasn’t enough to boost the ratings.
The show fell far behind MSNBC’s “Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell” with 1.6 million total viewers, although it attracted 139,000 viewers in the key demographic of adults 25-54, compared to the show’s O’Donnell, which attracted only 132,000 demo viewers. .
Ratings for “Gutfeld!” on Fox News added 2.2 million and 241,000 viewers in the demo.
CNN has been trying to climb out of last place and has realigned its primetime lineup this year with new anchors in the 9 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. slots.
However, “King Charles” failed to move the needle, following a string of notable CNN primetime premieres over the years. They include “Laura Coates Live” and “NewsNight” – both debuted in October – with 535,000 and 645,000 total viewers, respectively.
It also came in behind “The Source with Kaitlan Collins,” which premiered at 9 p.m. in July with 540,000 viewers.
Looking back, “King Charles” had a smaller audience than Don Lemon’s primetime show, which had 944,000 total viewers when it debuted in May 2021, Chris Cuomo’s primetime show in 2017 with 1.5 million of viewers and the 2011 premiere of “Erin Burnett Outfront” with 535,000. spectators.
A CNN representative did not comment specifically on “King Charles’s” lackluster debut, but said the show “performed well competitively in the demo, which has been the general trend for CNN.”
The representative also noted that “King Charles” had the youngest average audience age, 67, of any Wednesday 10 p.m. cable news program. Fox News had an average age of 68, while MSNBC’s average audience in that hour was 76.
