Chris Cuomo - P 2013
Getty ImagesThe premiere of CNN’s New Day did not get the cable news network out of its morning news ratings rut. Hosted by Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan with former KTLA personality Michaela Pereira as news anchor, the program averaged 247,000 total viewers with 95,000 in the 25-54 demographic, on which most news programming is sold.
That was down compared to CNN’s total viewer average for June of 2013, but up 25 percent among total viewers and seven percent in the demo compared to the same week last year. And compared to last Monday, New Day notched a 19 percent increase in the demo.
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Of course, the success of the program, the most high-profile to launch since Jeff Zucker took the reigns at CNN last January, cannot be measured on one day’s ratings. And CNN has a deep hole to dig out of in the morning, where the previous show had hit a ratings nadir. Senior executive producer Jim Murphy, a veteran of CBS News and ABC News, where he guided Good Morning America, described New Day as a “super newsy morning program.” And while the show’s format adheres much more closely to the broadcast morning shows than the competition on Fox News and MSNBC, CNN executives are banking that Cuomo, 42, and Bouldan, 29, can bring a new-generation sensibility to morning TV.
New Day — which airs from 6-9 a.m. — was fourth in the time slot on Monday behind Fox & Friends (1.0 million viewers, 262,000 in the demo), MSNBC’s Morning Joe (355,000 viewers, 132,000 in the demo) and the morning lineup on sister network HLN (215,000 total viewers, 121,000 in the demo).
