CEO’S CORNER

Prime-Time for CNN?

The Prime-Time Experiment by CNN Is Starting Slowly

While CNN seeks to reinvent itself, viewership is declining in the early going of its new 9 p.m. programming plan. In an effort to boost his network's dwindling prime-time ratings, Chris Licht, the new chairman of CNN, launched a novel experiment last month. He hoped that viewers would tune in for a mix of exclusive interviews and specials devoted to contentious issues like fentanyl abuse and the conflict in Ukraine.

Some viewers' ideas differed.

The number of viewers for Mr. Licht's 9 p.m. experiment, "CNN Primetime," has decreased since it started running multiple times a week on February 22. This is lower than what the network was attracting in this time slot only a few months earlier.

On March 8, more people in America viewed "Homicide Hunter: than CNN's exclusive interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in "The Man With No Face" on the Investigation Discovery cable network. Two days before, a History Channel afternoon show of "Ancient Aliens" attracted more viewers than a 9 p.m. interview with Jill Biden, the

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The interviews with Biden and Zelensky last week, as well as a town hall with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, resulted in CNN's fourth-lowest 9 p.m. weekly ratings in 24 years. Since Mr. Licht, a longtime producer of morning shows and late-night programming, assumed his position roughly a year ago, CNN has had troubled times. The network fired a new streaming channel, reduced the amount of its workforce, and dealt with criticism for sexist comments made by Don Lemon, the newsman. David Zaslav, the chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, which last year acquired CNN, has continued to give Mr. Licht his full backing. Tuesday, during a visit to CNN's Manhattan offices, Mr. Zaslav gave a rousing endorsement of Mr. Licht's plan for the network, exhorting the crew to experiment "ratings be damned."

"We're trying to figure out what is the ideal CNN," Mr. Zaslav said, according to a transcript of his remarks acquired by The New York Times. What are the tales we ought to be narrating? What strikes the proper balance?

Let's make a lot of launched a marketing campaign to promote these 9 p.m. specials, it's feasible the network may attract viewers to the time slot as more viewers get familiar with the novel idea. Nonetheless, news of CNN's declining viewership has spread beyond the cable executives who obsess over Nielsen data reports: Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken singled out the network in his humorous keynote address at the Gridiron Club's black-tie dinner last weekend in Washington.