CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s flagship program, The Lead with Jake Tapper, suffered a devastating blow in May 2025, recording its lowest ratings since August 2015, despite a high-profile book tour promoting his new release, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. The show averaged just 525,000 viewers from April 28 to May 25, a 25% drop from the same period last year, according to Nielsen Media Research, signaling a sharp decline in audience trust and raising questions about CNN’s relevance in a polarized media landscape.
Tapper’s book, co-authored with Axios reporter Alex Thompson, alleges a Biden White House cover-up of the former president’s cognitive decline, a narrative that dominated news cycles following its May release. The anchor’s extensive publicity tour, including appearances on podcasts, talk shows, and rival network MSNBC, failed to translate into viewership gains. Instead, The Lead captured only 11% of the cable news audience share, trailing MSNBC’s 21% and Fox News’s commanding 68%, with Fox’s The Five and Special Report with Bret Baier averaging 3.3 million viewers. Even more concerning, the show saw a 15% drop in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic, averaging just 95,000 viewers, per Fox News.
The ratings collapse comes as Tapper faces backlash for his role in allegedly underreporting Biden’s health issues during his presidency. In a May interview with Megyn Kelly, Tapper admitted “tremendous humility” about his past coverage, conceding conservative media was “correct” in highlighting Biden’s decline. Critics argue his book, while claiming to expose a scandal, inadvertently underscores his own complicity, alienating viewers who see legacy media as untrustworthy. A 2025 Pew poll shows only 31% of Americans trust mainstream outlets, a sentiment reflected in CNN’s broader struggles, with May marking its second-worst month ever in the 25-54 demographic.
CNN defended Tapper, noting that Nielsen ratings reflect only U.S. viewership, while The Lead reaches global audiences via CNN International and Max’s streaming platform. “No single metric can capture the true reach and impact of a program driving the national conversation,” a spokesperson told Fox News. Yet, the network’s overall primetime viewership fell 13% year-over-year through May 21, per Nielsen, and its profit dipped below $1 billion in 2024, per The New York Times, signaling systemic challenges under CEO Mark Thompson.
Tapper, once hailed by TheWrap as CNN’s “most respected anchor,” has struggled to maintain relevance. His show’s move to a 5-7 p.m. slot in March 2025 aimed to bolster primetime lead-ins but yielded no gains. The anchor’s admission that the Biden cover-up may have been “worse than Watergate” and his reported apology to Lara Trump for past remarks have done little to rebuild credibility, with some viewers tuning out over perceived bias. A 2021 ratings drop of 75% from January’s 2.8 million to June’s 706,000 viewers foreshadowed this decline, per Fox News.
As Trump’s second term dominates headlines, with policies like reinstated tariffs and controversial pardons, CNN’s inability to capitalize on a charged news cycle underscores its diminishing influence. Tapper’s ratings crisis reflects a broader reckoning for legacy media, as audiences gravitate toward alternatives. Whether CNN can recover remains uncertain, but for now, The Lead is a cautionary tale of a network out of touch.
