Karma Comes for Jake Tapper With Latest Show Ratings

We reported earlier that the ratings for MSNBC and CNN were like they were hit by the plague.

MSNBC was down 24 percent and CNN was down 18 percent in their average primetime viewership.

But surely, Jake Tapper must be doing well with all the attention he's getting from his book about Joe Biden's cognitive decline? After all, he's going on every show, and even on lowly podcasts, to promote the book.

Alas, poor Jake, they know him well, and they don't seem to be interested in watching him on CNN, despite all the book promotion. Tapper had his lowest month in almost ten years, despite all that attention.

“The Lead with Jake Tapper” averaged 525,000 total viewers from April 28 through May 25, shedding 25% of CNN’s audience in its timeslot from the same period last year in the process.
By comparison, Fox News offerings “The Five” and “Special Report with Bret Baier” averaged 3.3 million viewers from April 28 through May 25, trouncing Tapper.
MSNBC also beat Tapper among total viewers, as programming on the progressive network averaged a little over one million viewers in the timeslot. As a result, Tapper settled for only 11% of the cable news audience share, while MSNBC managed 21% and Fox News commanded 68% during the timeframe.
It was Tapper’s lowest-rated month since August 2015.
“The Lead with Jake Tapper” is also down from last year among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 25-54. Tapper’s newscast averaged only 95,000 viewers among the critical demo from April 28 through May 25, for a 15% drop.

Tapper was asked by Stephen A. Smith if he wrote the book for money. His answer is funny, particularly given the ratings.

Jake Tapper squirms and stammers when asked if he wrote his book as a money grab:

“The idea that I would do this for money is just silly and not true."

The man lies for a living. You’d think he’d be better at it by now. pic.twitter.com/NfIA8RZNBV
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 29, 2025

"CNN is my main job," he said. "That's my main source of income, by far."

He made Stephen A. Smith laugh when he said he didn't think people wrote books about Joe Biden for money. Yes, it's Joe Biden, failure follows, which was why Smith laughed. But it's funny that Tapper is squirming a bit over the question. Of course, he's getting money for it; he's not going to be turning down the money he gets.

So which charity(s) will be receiving 100% of his proceeds from the book sales? https://t.co/MZUrwlBu8b
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) May 29, 2025

Tapper is probably making a lot of money, even if it is a book about Biden.

But the book may have hurt his main job with CNN if he's losing what little audience they have left. As I've noted before, the leftists on X have been mad at him over the book; that may be showing up in the ratings. We'll have to see if it continues, but if his show's ratings continue the downturn, CNN might start looking in another direction for a host for that slot.

That would be real karma.

Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie.

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