CNN Pulls Gayle King’s Weekly Show with Charles Barkley

CNN has been trimming its roster, much like many of the mainstream media outlets that are getting crushed in the ratings war right now.

Part of the latest cuts from the network will be “King Charles.”

Former NBA star Charles Barkley and Gayle King hosted the weekly show, which aired at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Big Fail

One would think that Charles Barkley could capture a decent audience, but that was not the case.

Barkley and King struggled to top the reruns of “South Park” and “Friends” that were on simultaneously.

There were also challenges with scheduling, as Charles Barkley is a busy man. Among other commitments, he is already a co-host for “Inside the NBA” on TNT.

His schedule only allowed for one day of filming, that being Wednesday, which made things very challenging for the show.

The show never really popped anyway, starting with a viewership of about 500,000 people during its premier, with only about 25% of that in the key 25-54 demographic.

In January, the show's viewership in that demo dropped to under 100,000, so CNN has decided to part ways.

In terms of other political shows airing at the same time, “King Charles” came in third against Fox News’ “Gutfeld” and MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.”

Gutfeld has dominated this time slot, grabbing an average of 2.2 million viewers, as well as 320,000 in the 25-54 demo.

O’Donnell’s show averaged about 1.5 million viewers, with only 142,000 in the key demo.

Barkley has been a bit of an enigma for both sides of the aisle, saying what is in his head at any given moment, and that is not always good for Democrats.

King, however, was fairly predictable, criticizing Republicans, conservatives, and Donald Trump at every opportunity, sounding more like a White House press secretary than a journalist, most recently going off on comments made by Donald Trump regarding the Alabama IVF ruling.