Can Paramount Save CNN? Unlikely

Should Paramount Skydance's pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery pass government approval, CEO David Ellison says he will push to restore CNN's credibility.  

"Really, who we want to talk to is the 70% of Americans — and really around the world — that identify as center left, as center right," Ellison told CNBC this week. "And we want to be in the truth business. We want to be in the trust business. And that’s not going to change."

The acquisition would give Ellison’s Paramount control of CNN and CBS News, the latter of which he tasked Bari Weiss to oversee in late 2025.

Ellison and Weiss are hardly the MAGA sycophants the legacy media portray them as. But they are certainly less liberal and less zealous than CNN is today. And thus CNN’s future is one of, if not the biggest stories in media in 2026.

While most of the focus has been on CNN’s potential editorial direction under Paramount, reportedly with Weiss playing a role, the bigger question is whether a rebound is even viable.

Last month, OutKick published an analysis showing that CNN lost more than 40 percent of its total day and primetime audiences from 2017 to 2025. As a result, the network is far less profitable. In a January SEC filing, parent company Warner Bros. Discovery said it expects CNN to generate $600 million in profit, down from $1 billion in 2016.

Donald Trump walks off the stage during a break in the CNN Presidential Debate at the CNN Studios on June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Perhaps most concerning is the lack of increased interest during heavy news cycles. I began covering cable news ratings in 2020. While CNN trailed Fox News and MS Now (then known as MSNBC) it regularly saw the largest spikes during major breaking news periods, whether political turmoil, military action, scandals, or natural disasters. That suggested casual viewers, the normies who do not typically watch cable news, still defaulted to CNN as their trusted source, if not reflexively. That is no longer the case.

In February, CNN averaged just 807,000 viewers in primetime, compared to 1,136,000 for MS Now and 2,612,000 for Fox News. Measuring total day viewership, CNN drew 564,000 viewers, behind MS Now’s 708,000 and Fox News’ 1,718,000.

Here is how the networks fared last Saturday after the U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran:

Full Day (6:00 am to 6:00 am) 
• Fox News: 2,594,000
• CNN: 957,000
• MSNBC: 653,000

Primetime (8:00 pm to 11:00 pm)
• Fox News: 3,131,000
• CNN: 1,090,000
• MSNBC: 771,000

Rebuilding a cable network in 2026 will be no simple task. Cord-cutting continues to accelerate, and Americans increasingly consume content, including news, via YouTube and other digital platforms. The only categories showing consistent cable growth are live sports, Fox News, and reality programming. Regardless of format or talent, CNN is not going to overtake Fox News and is unlikely to claw back any meaningful market share.

Ellison says he wants to target the ideological center. In theory, that's appealing. In practice, the demand for that kind of programming is limited.

For one, convincing viewers that a network is genuinely moderate and trustworthy is difficult. Audiences prefer clarity about perspective, which explains the appeal of Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow, Megyn Kelly, and Joe Rogan.

ABC News’ David Muir and Fox News’ Bret Baier are among the few anchors viewers still turn to for straight-down-the-middle coverage.

Nexstar attempted a similar strategy with NewsNation at its launch in 2021, building around news anchors, centrist Dan Abrams, and true crime junkie Ashleigh Banfield. The channel has since pivoted to more opinion-driven programming featuring Chris Cuomo and Katie Pavlich, alongside frequent appearances by Stephen A. Smith and Bill O’Reilly. NewsNation averaged 169,000 viewers in November.

David Ellison, the chairman and chief executive officer of Paramount Skydance Corp., walks through Statuary Hall to the State of the Union address during a Joint Session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on February 24, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

CNN will have to lean into strong, distinct voices that viewers care about. That said, there aren't many of them. Scott Jennings, the resident conservative foil, is arguably the most influential on-air personality at CNN. Weiss is reportedly a fan of Jennings, so elevating him would make sense. Beyond him, the lineup includes Abby Phillip, Laura Coates, and Erin Burnett. None have demonstrated significant individual drawing power.

Anderson Cooper’s future is particularly notable. He reportedly earns around $18 million annually and recently departed CBS News’ "60 Minutes" amid leadership changes. Those same news leaders at CBS will now preside over CNN.

There is also the question of how much Ellison will invest in a potential turnaround, in terms of poaching big-name talent elsewhere. The Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery merger will create a combined company carrying roughly $79 billion in net debt, according to Paramount. Fixing CNN will not materially deleverage that balance sheet. The priority will be integrating Paramount+ and HBO Max and leveraging the combined live sports portfolios of CBS Sports and TNT Sports.

What does all of this mean for the future of the longest-running cable news network in America?

Most likely, CNN will not be the priority. Ellison will try to improve it, to steer it back toward relevance and respect. However, no honest observer can express much confidence that he, or any media mogul, can fully restore the once prestigious CNN brand.

Put bluntly, Paramount’s takeover of CNN will likely look more like a kill shot than a revival, something to mount on Ellison’s mantle as he eliminates one of the progressive left’s primary vehicles of messaging.