Half a year after Jeff Zucker took over CNN, the news network is showing signs of revitalization from its previous ratings doldrums.
A month after its June 17 premiere, CNN's morning show "New Day" has shown steady growth in the key 25-54 news demo, edging out MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
From the first week to its fourth week, ending July 12, "New Day" grew from 102,000 viewers in the demo to 121,000 viewers, averaging 111,000 viewers for the month — narrowly besting MSNBC's "Morning Joe," which averaged 110,000.
The demo growth for "New Day" has been steady from week to week — the show, which is anchored by Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira — has averaged 102,000, 109,000, 114,000 and 121,000 in weeks one through four, respectively. ("New Day" also won the key news demo on Tuesday.)
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Of course, CNN's new morning entry still has a way to go if it hopes to top the morning cable competition, of course; in total viewers, "New Day," which averaged 320,000 in its first month, is still behind "Morning Joe," which averaged 352,000, and Fox's "Fox & Friends" — which had a commanding average of 1.067 million total viewers. ("New Day" did however, beat out HLN's "Morning Express," which averaged 290,000 total viewers.) And in the demo, "New Day" still lags behind "Fox & Friends" and "Morning Express."
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The good news for "New Day" is that it's growing — which isn't always the case with its competitors. In addition to the steady week-to-week growth in the demo, the new morning offering was up 50 percent in total viewers in its first month compared to the same period a year ago, and grew 18 percent in the demo versus a year ago. Conversely, "Fox & Friends" and "Morning Joe" dipped modestly against year-ago numbers in the past month.