CNN Shocker: Friday Night Primetime Ratings Fell Below the Newsmax Line

Two days after hosting a highly controversial "town hall" interview with former President Donald Trump, CNN saw its primetime ratings drop to historic levels, with the network finishing even behind upstart far-right channel Newsmax.

CNN averaged only 335,000 viewers from 8 p.m. - 11 p.m. Friday vs. 357,000 for Newsmax, according to Nielsen, despite the fact that Newsmax lacks distribution on Frontier Communications and other pay TV platforms.

Despite the loss of Tucker Carlson, Fox News easily won the evening with a 1.44 million viewer average, followed by MSNBC (1.08 million).

Also read: CNN Averages Only 3.3 Million Viewers for Reputation-Wilting Trump Town Hall

In the adults 25-54 demo, the coin of the realm in Cable Newsland, CNN actually performed better, averaging 87,000 viewers to finish in third place ahead of Newsmax (45,000).

But the total viewer performance highlighted, in a headline-generating way, a sustained ratings slump for CNN, which has pledged to reorient its coverage to what it believes is the political center.

In March, CNN reported a steep 61% year-over-year total audience dip, suggesting it's not been able to replace viewer defections on the left with new watchers on the right.

Meanwhile, now more than a year into the reign of Chris Licht, tensions are running high inside the newsroom, with the CNN president reportedly dressing down CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy for his critical coverage of the Trump town hall appearance.

A Puck report described Darcy as being visibly shaken after the Friday meeting, during which Licht accused the reporter's coverage of being overly emotional.