The Source with Kaitlan Collins officially debuted last week, and Keith Olbermann believes if a pearl of longstanding conventional wisdom holds true, the new CNN anchor won’t be long for the timeslot.
During his Countdown podcast, Olbermann shared that the usual thought process is that ratings for a new program will peak in its first week. However, the results weren’t strong for Collins.
“The first week’s ratings are in for the new Kaitlan Collins 9:00 PM show on CNN,” said Olbermann. “Monday: last place. Tuesday: last place. Wednesday: last place. Thursday: last place. Friday? Last place.”
Olbermann then mocked Collins for her results by noting her standing in the 25-54 demographic.
“She did, however, get into triple digits in the advertising demo, so she had more than 100,000 viewers aged 25-54…on one of the five nights. Oof.”
Collins stepped into the timeslot at a tumultuous time for CNN. The official launch of the show came after the network parted ways with CEO Chris Licht, who had championed Collins for the primetime role. The 9:00 PM ET window on CNN had been officially unoccupied since it fired Chris Cuomo in 2021.
