The ‘King’ is dead
CNN slam dunks Barkley’s prime-time show
The CNN weekly primetime talk show co-hosted by basketball loudmouth Charles Barkley and CBS morning star Gayle King has ended a six-month run that failed to produce ratings.
The weekly call-in show “King Charles,” which aired at 10 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday nights, failed to generate more viewers than reruns of the sitcom “Friends” and episodes of “South Park.”
It was the lowest-rated prime-time weeknight series debut for CNN in at least a decade, according to Nielsen.
When the show launched in November, CNN said it planned to air it through the early spring.
An industry source told The Post that the show was limited by Barkley’s schedule.
The NBA Hall of Famer
could only do the show on Wednesdays due to his other commitments — namely his role as a co-host of the popular “Inside the NBA” on CNN’s sister station TNT, according to a source close to the network.
Barkley had mentioned that his crowded schedule made it more difficult for the show to attract a loyal following.
Since debuting in November, “King Charles” viewership fell 20%. The first airing was watched by 500,000 total viewers and 139,000 in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic, according to Nielsen.
The show’s Jan. 31 episode failed to crack the 100,000-viewer threshold in the 25-54 demo — the first time it couldn’t reach the six-figure mark, Nielsen numbers show.
A CNN spokesperson said the show was “a great addition to CNN’s lineup” and that the viewership was among “the youngest, most affluent, and most diverse” audience in cable during its time slot.
“King Charles” was the brainchild of Chris Licht, the former CNN boss who was unceremoniously fired last year after an unflattering magazine profile portrayed him as a thinskinned manager who alienated staffers and was jealous of their longing for his predecessor, Jeff Zucker.
Its March 13 episode generated just 416,000 total viewers — a 17% drop compared with the 457,000 total viewers who tuned in a week prior, according to Nielsen figures.