This story by The Wrap was published Friday night but I didn’t see it until today. The gist here is that the new CNN isn’t doing any better than the old CNN. Ratings for the week of Jan 16 to Jan 20 are the lowest the network has seen in nine years.

CNN just notched its lowest ratings in nine years across all its day parts for the week of Jan. 16 through Jan. 22, 2023, according to Nielsen averaging just 444,000 viewers in primetime, 93,000 in the all-important age 25-54 news demographic and 417,000 in viewers and 80,000 in the demo for total day. It’s the first time since May 2014 that the network failed to reach 450,000 viewers.

You may recall all the drama that happened last year at CNN. Jeff Zucker resigned last February under a cloud of suspicion regarding his decision making regarding Andrew Cuomo and his ongoing relationship with a subordinate. Just how ongoing the affair with Allison Gollust had been was a matter of debate, but some claimed it had been an “open secret” at CNN for nearly a decade. Gollust resigned a couple weeks later, though the word was she was actually pushed out for allowing Andrew Cuomo to select his own questions when he appeared on the network.

But the drama was just getting started. By March, former host Chris Cuomo was suing CNN and demanding $125 million. and then in April we learned that CNN+ a new venture which was barely a month old had been shut down permanently. Brian Stelter, who’d been given a show on CNN+, lasted a few more months but by August CNN had fired Stelter and the entire staff for Reliable Sources, his weekend show on CNN.

And with Stelter’s firing there started a series of articles suggesting that CNN might be (gasp!) moving to the right and breaking up with the White House. But CNN held on to Jim Acosta and instead of firing Don Lemon he was given a new contract moving him out of primetime to become the face of CNN’s morning show. Lemon made a point of saying that move was a promotion.

And the no good, very bad year for CNN ended with layoffs at the end of November. But obviously, based on those ratings above, CNNs troubles aren’t over. And the newly revamped morning show isn’t helping.

Some especially troublesome news out of this week’s Nielsen numbers is that Licht’s primary programming move, “CNN This Morning,” also suffered the lowest week since its launch just three months ago. It averaged just 331,000 viewers while “Fox & Friends” had nearly 1 million and “Morning Joe” drew 760,000…

Insiders also told TheWrap that even hosts Lemon, Harlow and Collins “seem to be growing frustrated” over the direction.

Personally, I think Don Lemon is a better fit for the morning show than he was in primetime, but then I think he’d be even better as a local affiliate newsreader in Anchorage or maybe Milwaukee. How he continues to fail upward is a question for the ages.

Coincidentally(?), the LA Times published an interview with Zucker’s replacement Chris Licht today in which Licht talked about his plans to maybe bring some comedy to CNN primetime and to simultaneously restore trust in the network.

Are you talking to comedians about being part of the new prime-time show?

We are in conversations with culturally relevant individuals from the worlds of entertainment, sports and comedy who can bring fresh and unique perspectives to the news.

Most funny comedians are liberal. Even Bill Maher has a liberal sensibility. How will this work for a network that is trying to appear less politically partisan?

There is nothing wrong with opinion or perspective, especially in prime time, but it has to be authentic. We are completely uninterested in partisan hackery and ideological talking points.

What is it about CNN’s reputation that has to be restored?

I think we have to restore trust. It’s that simple. You can talk to a lot of different people as to why that has eroded, but as opposed to looking back I will say one of our missions is to restore our reputation as the most trusted name in news. We certainly have research that shows that [trust] has eroded.

This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Honestly, the idea of replacing Chris Cuomo with an actual comedian is too perfect.

As for CNN’s disinterest in partisan hackery, that’s genuinely funny. CNN has been neck deep in partisan hackery for the past several years. No, not every host at every moment but this is the network that made stars out of Michael Avenatti and the Parkland school kids (who were being given behind the scenes help by professional gun control groups). It’s the network that kept Brian Stelter employed to attack Fox News while simultaneously acting as a mouthpiece to defend CNN. It’s the network that helped make a hero of Andrew Cuomo by letting his own brother interview him during the pandemic. The idea that CNN isn’t interested in partisan hacker must come as a surprise to all the liberals who’ve worked there, doing their best to support progressive causes and interests.

There may be a way for CNN to restore some credibility but it won’t be with Don Lemon as the face of the network.