Covering the April death and succession of Pope John Paul II was good for CNN's ratings; covering the foibles of Jennifer Wilbanks, the "runaway bride" from Georgia, in May, was not. Fox News continued to far outpace CNN in May's Nielsen estimates, as well as all other cable news outlets. Concurrent with its 25th anniversary, CNN's April ratings spike evaporated. Fox News increased its year-over-year ratings during the prime-time hours in total viewers, averaging an audience of 1.4 million for the month, compared with CNN's 610,000.
I wonder if CNN will ever get a clue. MSNBC won't as long as Kaplan is in charge.