Sorry to say the Gayle King-Charles Barkley ratings on CNN are beyond awful.
On Wednesday night, for its second week, “King Charles” scored just 466,000 viewers. That was down 50K from last week, or 7%.
Second place Alex Wagner on MSNBC had 1 million more viewers. Sean Hannity on Fox had 1.5 million more.
“King Charles” is a bad idea, and apparently no one wants to see it. King is a great broadcaster, and Charles is a sports hero. But why they are together, and what they are doing is a mystery.
I’m sure Gayle knows this is a disaster. But what is she going to do? King runs the CBS Mornings five days a week. Her plate is full. If she’s planning headline making interviews, they’ll be on CBS, not here. So far CNN isn’t really promoting “King Charles” because they don’t what it is either.
Last night, King and Barkley interviewed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. It sounds like when Joe Franklin used to interview, say, Henry Kissinger and Loni Anderson, something so desperately inappropriate and unequal in importance. Pick one or the other. I don’t think anyone wants to hear Charles Barkley interview Blinken on any subject except may be his guitar playing.
Bring back Don Lemon. Give him celebrities at 9pm. Or give it to Anderson Cooper. The only solution to knocking off Hannity and Maddow is a Larry King-like show with the right person hosting.
