NewsNation is shaking up its primetime — a bit. Starting Monday, Dan Abrams’ “Dan Abrams Live” will shift back to 9 p.m., handing “NewsNation Prime” his 8 o’clock slot.
“NewsNation Prime,” anchored by Marni Hughes, is the country’s only live national primetime newscast.
“Moving to 9 p.m. ET will expose Dan and his show to millions of new viewers at a time when the cable news landscape is going through a lot of transition, with a number of schedule changes and anchor realignment underway,” Michael Corn, the president of news for NewsNation, said in a statement on Friday. “We also believe that ‘NewsNation Prime,’ with its team of experienced reporters and their ability to highlight the day’s big stories, is the perfect fit as the lead-in to Dan’s show.”
Moving Abrams to 9 p.m. may “expose” him to “millions of new viewers,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to get any even semi-significant portion of them. This month, “Dan Abrams Live” at 8 o’clock is averaging just 55,000 total viewers, of which only 7,000 come from the key demographic for news programming, adults 25-54.
“NewsNation Prime” is averaging only 50,000 total viewers, with 8,000 of them in the key demo.
So any sort of a shakeup here couldn’t hurt, is what we’re saying.
Earlier this year, “NewsNation Prime” launched “The Missing,” a special weekly segment focusing on individuals reported missing by family members and friends. The series has covered more than 30 underreported cases of missing people around the country.
Since the segment’s launch, eight of the spotlighted families have received closure. Three families found missing loved ones alive, with one of the discoveries attributed to a viewer seeing a “NewsNation Prime” report.
NewsNation, owned by Nexstar Media, reaches 75 million households across the U.S. The channel was formerly WGN America.