CNN tarnishes careers of two of Hollywood’s most bankable stars with disastrous televised town hall as ailing network continues to circle the drain

CNN’s highly publicized town hall event with Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey is a ratings flop that has dulled the halo of its A-List hosts, according to a combination of Nielsen Media Research and industry experts.

The heavily promoted special drew just 453,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. Only 57,000 of them were aged 25 to 54, the new numbers show.

For reference, a regular airing of The Big Weekend Show secured more than twice that, on the same, ordinary Saturday.

Meanwhile, CNN drew a measly 30,000 viewers aged 18 to 49, compared to Fox’s 71,000.

Overall, the difference was even more glaring. Fox News outpaced its more liberal rival by more than 1.2million viewers for a nearly 300 percent win.

CNN also aired the program this past Saturday at 7pm – a decision decried by industry source who spokes with the Daily Mail Wednesday.

‘CNN’s ratings problem is indicative of a larger management issue – you have two of Hollywood’s biggest names sitting down for a town hall and you air it on Saturday at 7 PM? Were they purposely trying to bury this?’ one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

‘There is no strategy, an utter lack of leadership and zero vision. What an embarrassment for Chalamet and McConaughey.’

CNN, moreover, has lost nearly two-thirds of its primetime viewers in the past 10 years, the Mail previously reported.

The recent ratings slip-up is therefore all the more unwelcome, at a time where CNN is admittedly experimenting.

‘If two of Hollywood’s stars can’t drive an audience for CNN, it raises serious questions about the strength and future of the network,’ the Mail’s source said.

‘CNN still hasn’t figured out its chronically low ratings problem.’

Rob Shuter, a veteran media columnist and author of the Naughty But Nice Substack, agreed with the assessment. 

‘Putting Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey on at 7 pm on a Saturday is like throwing a premiere and forgetting to send the invites,’ Shuter, a former executive editor at OK!, said.

‘When two of Hollywood’s brightest stars can’t deliver even half a million viewers, the problem isn’t celebrity – it’s the channel.

‘These numbers aren’t just disappointing. They’re alarming. You don’t heavily promote a town hall and then post 57,000 in the key demo,’ he said.

The ‘demo’ of course is the highly coveted 25 to 54 demographic – one perpetually important to advertisers due to its spending power. 

‘CNN didn’t stage an event – they staged a shrug,’ Shuter said.

‘If this was meant to reset CNN’s cultural relevance, it did the opposite. It highlighted how disconnected the network is from audience behavior.’   

‘CNN seems to think star power is a strategy. It’s not. It’s an accessory.

‘The bigger question isn’t whether this was a flop – it’s whether CNN understands what kind of network it wants to be anymore.’  

As Shuter indicated, the network carried out a round of layoffs to start 2025 and herald in its long-promised move to digital. 

The long-in-the-works restructuring plan followed a failed leadership stint from former Stephen Colbert showrunner Chris Licht, which lasted barely a year.

Licht replaced longtime lead Jeff Zucker, after the latter masterminded the network’s shift to more opinionated content in the 2010s right around the time of Donald Trump’s first presidency.

The network has so far failed to capitalize on the conservative’s second term, though, after a reported ‘tone-down’ in anti-Trump commentary called by CEO Mark Thompson.

The network’s website still attracts 120million monthly users, as it starts to implement more vertical videos and non-news content.

The network launched a little-known comedic panel show called Have I Got News For You back in 2024, for instance, adapted from a popular British program. 

The network also televised a Broadway rendition of Good Night, and Good Luck, featuring George Clooney.

The Chalamet and McConaughey sitdown – which lasted about an hour – is part of on ongoing partnership between CNN and Variety started last year.

The series, known as Actors on Actors, was initially started by Variety in 2014.

CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is also up for sale. The company has denied rumors that CNN is up for sale as well. If Warner is sold, the cable channel will be cast off to a newly created company.

As for the A-listers caught up in the mess, Shuter said, ‘This won’t hurt Chalamet or McConaughey one bit. They sell movie tickets and streaming subscriptions – not cable news at 7pm.’

Shuter has appeared on Today, GMA, Rachael Ray, Wendy Williams, and CNN, and has a book available for pre-order on Amazon.

A CNN spokesperson, meanwhile, shot down claims the program was a flop, saying in statement: ‘The Town Hall reached more than 8 million people globally and was a huge success. 

‘The clips were everywhere. People all around the world consume content in a multitude of ways, and that’s how this was programmed. 

‘It’s antiquated to only look at cable TV ratings when this was streamed and put on YouTube as well, and the total audience was significant.’