Jake Tapper Sets 10 Year Ratings Low On CNN Amid New Book About Biden

Despite the recent publicity, viewership for Jake Tapper's afternoon CNN program has never been lower. For the month of May, "The Lead" with Jake Tapper drew its lowest ratings in 10 years with an average of just 525,000 viewers.

Tapper is currently on a media tour to promote his new book "Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," a title about the White House's effort to cover up Joe Biden's mental fitness–-or lack thereof. 

"To promote the project, Tapper has embarked on a wide-ranging book tour that landed him on a variety of podcasts, talk shows and cable news. The book has also been promoted relentlessly across CNN, but the spotlight on Tapper has seemingly failed to give him a boost in viewership," Fox News Digital reported on Thursday.

"While Tapper’s efforts to promote "Original Sin" haven’t helped viewership, the CNN host has managed to generate headlines by admitting he didn’t report on Biden’s age issues aggressively enough and declaring the cover-up of the former president’s mental decline may be a worse scandal than Watergate."

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 27: Jake Tapper attends the Jake Tapper And Alex Thompson In Conversation With David Remnick: Original Sin - President Biden's 2024 Campaign at 92NY on May 27, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

To be frank, we are not surprised to see Tapper's viewership erode following the promotion of his book. 

Democrats don't want to hear the truth about Biden. Meanwhile, Republicans already knew about Biden's cognitive decline and weren't watching Tapper or CNN anyway.

The book also undermines Tapper's own credibility. He was also one of the many legacy news anchors who dismissed any and all reporting about Biden's condition. 

Notably, Tapper criticized Lara Trump on air for questioning Biden's fitness. He says he called her to apologize two months ago. "I’ve already apologized to [Lara]," Tapper told Megyn Kelly earlier this month. "I called her months ago."

That said, his afternoon program isn't the only show on the channel to set near-record declines in May. CNN averaged its second-worst month on record in the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults 25-54 in both total day and primetime viewership for the month.

Like MSNBC, CNN has yet to recover from its post-election declines from November. MSNBC's new primetime lineup declined by nearly 45% compared to May 2024.

During most hours of the day, the Fox News Channel has more viewers than the other two networks combined. Specifically, Tapper accounted for just 11% of the cable news audience share from 5-7 p.m. ET in May, while Fox News accounted for 68%.

Perhaps CNN should focus less on Tapper and more on, dare we say, Scott Jennings?