It's Been A Year Since Jeff Zucker Took Over At CNN - Here's How He's Doing So Far

As of Tuesday, Jeff Zucker had officially been the president of CNN for one full year. So far, Zucker has presided over the good - the Emmy Award-winning "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" - and the bad - think "poop cruise" and the erroneous Boston Marathon bombing reporting

Overall, however, the metrics suggest that Zucker has failed to spark CNN's ratings. MSNBC suffered from the dip of a non-election year that saw CNN surge past it to a distant No. 2 in total-day viewers next to the dominant Fox News. But CNN's own primetime ratings slid to a 20-year low.

According to Nielsen Media Research, CNN also had its second-lowest year ever among the key 25-54 age demographic - since the company began measuring ratings according to current formula in 1992.

The story is the same in total-day viewers. CNN had its lowest total-day audience since 1992, and its lowest total-day key-demo audience since 2000.

All three cable networks were down in 2013, a non-election year. In total-day viewers, CNN was flat. In primetime, it was down 16% in total viewers and 18% in the key demo.

Zucker seems acutely aware of these facts. He told Quartz in a December interview that though he's "more impatient than anybody" for ratings improvements, "it just does not work that way."

Here's a quick rundown of the network's ratings under Zucker's first year:

• Zucker's flagship new morning program, "New Day," is down 9% in total viewers (278,000) and down 20% in the key age demographic (97,000) compared to the program it replaced, "Starting Point." (Numbers compare the period from "New Day's" June 17 launch to Jan. 15, vs. "Starting Point's" Jan. 31, 2012, through June 14 ratings.) The show ranked third in total viewers and fourth in the key demographic among the four cable news networks in the 6-9 a.m. timeslot.
• "Crossfire," which Zucker resurrected, is down 25% in total viewers (373,000) and down 23% in key demo (125,000) compared to "The Situation Room," which it replaced. (Comparison is "Crossfire's" Sept. 9, 2013 through Jan. 15 numbers, and "The Situation Room's" Dec. 21, 2012, through Sept. 6, 2013, stats. "Crossfire" ranked third both total viewers and in the key demographic in the 6:30 p.m. timeslot.
• Zucker saw mixed success with documentaries, on which he is placing particular emphasis heading into 2014. On one hand, "Blackfish" was critically acclaimed and a ratings success. On another, "Sole Survivor" finished behind both Fox and MSNBC in its timeslot, and was down 39% in total viewers compared to "Blackfish."
• In both total-day and primetime viewers, CNN's ratings have been declining for the past two quarters.
• In November, CNN suffered its worst week under Zucker. It was the worst ratings performance since the network got slammed with record lows going up against 2012 Olympic coverage the year before.