CNBC is considering a dramatic change to its programming centered on catering to its newest, and some believe its most difficult star, Shepard Smith, according to TVNewser.
Last week, The Daily Beast reported tensions are growing at the network after Smith’s show laid off two non-white employees. Also, longtime television producer Sandy Cannold left the show after some public clashes with Smith in front of staff.
The network reportedly considers moving Mad Money host Jim Cramer out of his 6 pm slot to accommodate more Shepard Smith programming. The News with Shepard Smith averaged a little under 200,000 viewers last month. The show continues to struggle in the 25-54 demo.
“It’s been less than a year since we launched The News with Shepard Smith, and we are incredibly proud of the high-quality journalism and powerful storytelling the team produces every weeknight,” a network spokesperson told the website.
Smith’s show has struggled to gain traction at CNBC. Last year, Barrett News Media reported that the show brought in an average of 343,000 total viewers in its first week
“While news viewers’ habits take time to change, The News has far outperformed in the 7 pm time slot from the same time period in 2020 and in June, viewers watched 7.2 million hours across TV, digital and social platforms, which was double-digit percentage growth month-over-month,” the network said.
Schlep Smith not pulling in the eyeballs, who could of seen this coming????
NBC is shutting down the WRONG NETWORK. They should have shut down either CNBC or MSNBC. They could have merged the two into NBC CABLE NEWS, have market news in the over night from say 12 am to 6 am covering international markets and the global news. Then have morning Joe from 6-9 then have the daily market news shows ending with Kramer at 6 then have all your news talk shows in the evening until midnight. With The choice on Peacock and NBC News live and NBCnews.com you could cover daily news programing. scaling down the news division and shuttering an entire news network you would have freed up capital to save NBCSN.