Following his brief stint as a host on CNN, former NBA superstar Charles Barkley offered a scathing critique of the “idiots” he worked with at the company.
Barkley, a longtime NBA commentator for CNN sister network TNT, was hired last year to co-host, along with CBS News’ Gayle King, the experimental prime-time weekly show “King Charles,” which ended last month.
On the “Mike Missanelli Podcast” on Thursday, Barkley disputed media claims that “King Charles” had been “cancelled,” even though CNN had promoted the show as a limited series ever since it began airing last November.
“You know what kind of idiots I work with,” Barkley began. “First of all, it’s not canceled. I talk to Gayle all the time. It’s never been said it’s canceled. They’re such idiots… I always thought I’d only do it for a short time and then go back to the NBA. So me and Gayle, the people I work with are such idiots.”
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TNT’s Charles Barkley criticized CNN after a brief stint as host there. (Mike Kirshbaum/NBAE via Getty Images)
The TNT star continued that he “really loves” hosting for CNN and that he gets to talk about things other than basketball, but went on to criticize the news network for reporting the show’s cancellation.
“But this just shows how shitty CNN as a whole is,” Barkley said. “Someone new has taken over and it’s a mess. There was a story yesterday that CNN’s ratings are at their lowest since 1992.”
CNN declined to comment.
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CNN continues to struggle to retain viewers, with prime-time ratings hitting an all-time low last week. (John Graeme/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“King Charles” is the brainchild of ex-CNN president Chris Licht, who tapped King, with whom he previously worked as executive producer on “CBS This Morning” (now called “CBS Mornings,” where King still serves as co-host), and turned to in-house talent at Warner Bros. Discovery, with Barkley remaining a popular NBA commentator for TNT.
Berkeley has always been outspoken about CNN’s plight. When negotiations were underway last year, he openly called CNN a “shit show” and joked. He “jumped on the Titanic.” After the show was announced.
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Despite the star power that Barkley and King brought to CNN, “King Charles” was never a hit with TV viewers, garnering just 500,000 viewers when it premiered in November and then losing about 20% of its audience, though that figure doesn’t include viewership data for the livestream on Max.
“King Charles” flopped in the ratings for CNN, despite having a star behind a weekly primetime show. (Screenshot/CNN)
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In addition to “King Charles,” CNN has tried a variety of other things to boost its ratings, including overhauling its daytime and primetime programming and airing reruns of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Saturdays.
The network’s struggle to retain viewers continues. Last week, in the midst of the New York v. Trump trial, CNN’s primetime viewership hit an all-time low, averaging just 83,000 viewers per night in the advertiser-coveted adults 25-54 demographic from May 13-19, according to Nielsen Media Research. The dismal numbers tied the network’s 2023 Thanksgiving week as its lowest viewership in the critics’ category since 1991.
