CNN Show With Charles Barkley, Gayle King Is An All-Time Ratings Dud

The weekly CNN program "King Charles" featuring Charles Barkley and Gayle King debuted with 501,000 viewers in November, marking one of the lowest-rated CNN primetime premieres over the past decade. 

Viewership for the show has dwindled precipitously since. The most recent episode, airing on Wednesday, Jan. 31, drew just 400,000 total viewers and 89,000 in the coveted 25-54 demographic.

The episode was the first in which "King Charles" did not reach 100,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic, earning the show a scratch number.

Head-to-head, "Gutfeld" on Fox News and "The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell" on MSNBC drew 2.3 million and 1.8 million viewers, respectively.

"Gutfeld" averaged 300,000 viewers in the demo. O'Donnell averaged 155,000. 

"King Charles"  is struggling even for CNN standards. Its lead-in, "The Source with Kaitlan Collins," drew 521,000 viewers just an hour before. 

The show barely registered on cable charts for the day, trailing repeat episodes "Friends" and "Modern Family." A re-air of "South Park: at 2:30 am on Comedy Central also topped Barkley and King.

The network wholly overestimated the interest in Oprah's friend talking politics with a former jock. "King Charles" is a dud, point-blank. 

Barkley and King are only signed with the network through 2024. It's hard to imagine the show continuing beyond that point.

Plus, the show was a creation of former CEO Chris Licht. He's no longer in charge. Mark Thompson is. 

And Thompson, apparently, plans to return the network to its days of red-hot liberal opining. Thompson recently promoted Biden stooge Jim Acosta to the weekday lineup. 

Simply put, Barkley and King's focus on culture and interviews does not fit Thompson's vision. 

That said, Thompson must do more than just rid himself of Barkley and King to steer the ship in the proper direction. "King Charles" might be one of the lowest-rated shows on CNN. But none of the programs are, exactly, crushing it.

The top-rated show on CNN last year was "Anderson Cooper 360." Cooper averaged just 743,000, ranking 29th in cable news. Twenty-eight shows on Fox News and MSNBC rated better than CNN's top program. 

That's embarrassing.

The History Channel and obscure Western networks now top CNN in primetime ratings. Its morning slate loses to ESPN, a sports network. 

And, no, the return of a jerkoff like Jeffrey Toobin is not the solution: