(RoyalPatriot.com )- Sundays will not be a day of rest for Anderson Cooper.
CNN, which has been struggling with its ratings, said on Thursday that it will have Cooper headline a new program on Sunday evenings.
According to controversial network chief Chris Licht, the hourlong newsmagazine show will premiere on April 16 at 8 pm and will contain deep dives into topics of the day along with interviews, profiles, and investigations.
Cooper, who extended his contract in 2016 for an unknown sum, is presently the weeknight anchor of “AC360.” Even while it has CNN’s highest ratings, it still falls significantly below MSNBC and Fox News.
CNN declined to say if Cooper will be paid more to host the new program.
Former Fox anchor Chris Wallace’s ratings have been low since the show’s premiere last autumn.
Just 349,000 people watched the most recent telecast on Sunday, a 24% drop from the previous week; however, HBO Max will begin streaming Wallace’s program on Friday morning, three full days before it airs on CNN on Sunday.
Cooper will have CNN anchor Sara Sidner on the first edition of “The Whole Story” to discuss “political and social challenges afflicting” the Bay Area.
Given that Cooper already works part-time as a journalist for rival “60 Minutes,” CBS’s long-running newsmagazine, the decision to hire him to help boost its Sunday night ratings seems peculiar.
CBS said earlier this week that its most recent “60 Minutes” aired to a total of 8.26 million people, ranking it first in Sunday primetime among adults 25-54, the demographic most valued by advertisers.
Only CBS’s coverage of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament beat out “60 Minutes” as the most-watched program that night.
Cable news ratings have long been dominated by Fox News, and CNN has been trying unsuccessfully to acquire viewership.
As expected, Trump has been quite profitable for CNN. On Tuesday night, the network noticed an increase in viewers as they prepared for what is widely expected to be a criminal indictment of the former president by the district attorney in Manhattan.
On Tuesday night, CNN drew in 704,000 more viewers than MSNBC did during prime time. Of them, 190,000 belonged to the highly sought-after 25-54 age group.
