Oh, No: Shep Smith's Low Ratings Are Causing "Turmoil" at CNBC; Smith Throws "Temper Tantrums"

This doesn't sound like the Noted Baby-Eating at the Superdome Documentarian and Car Chase Color Man that I know.

Whether it's a poor time slot, behind-the-scenes squabbles, an outdated news format, a slower post-Trump news cycle, or just a once-popular anchor taking his frustrations out on staffers, CNBC insiders have a lot of reasons for why Shepard Smith's show has failed to capture major ratings. But one thing many agree on is that it has not met the bosses' expectations.

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But The News with Shepard Smith, the brainchild of CNBC chairman Mark Hoffman, has struggled to attract the millions of viewers who watched Smith every day for years at Fox News, or to produce the fiery breakout viral moments that defined the later part of his tenure at the conservative cable-news giant. And those struggles have seemingly fostered some turmoil within the network and the show's staff. This story is based on interviews with nine current and former CNBC staffers.

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A traditional broadcast anchor with little appetite for the partisan or ideological programming that has come to define cable news...

LOL. This is the Daily Beast making this claim.

Note that later on the article praises him for his feuds with the conservative hosts at Fox.

Which makes Shep Smith non-partisan and non-ideological in their eyes.

...Smith entertained discussions with a number of competitors including CBS News, but ultimately signed with CNBC in 2020 on a deal rumored to be in the $5-6 million ballpark--a significant pay cut from the roughly $30-million salary he was believed to be raking in at Fox News.

LOL.

Smith's salary and the resources Hoffman has thrown at his show have created a tremendous amount of resentment from other CNBC talent, according to multiple insiders familiar with the situation.

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But the viewers never seemed to show up.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the show averaged just 197,000 total viewers in June, losing a third of its viewers since the show's peak in February, which saw an average of 296,000 nightly viewers. The show is currently the seventh-highest rated program on CNBC and 11th in the key demographic of viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 years old.

Shep Smith's Glittering Eyes still draw some of the grandmas who hoped he would marry their granddaughters, but apparently he's not as popular with the granddaughters.

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And the show has faced its fair share of internal friction, some of which has centered on the host himself.... [S]ome staffers have complained that he is difficult to deal with.

Shep Smith -- a drama queen?!

No, I shan't believe it. I simply shannot.

At least two people with direct knowledge of the situation described Smith as having regular "temper tantrums."

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Other employees were also frustrated when, in recent weeks, the show laid off two of the few non-white employees on its production team.

LOL. So he's a racist too.

posted by Ace at 03:19 PM

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