CNN Sees Ratings Growth With Have I Got News For You

It’s not exactly a grand slam, but it’s a solid start.

Saturday night’s debut of CNN’s late-night-styled comedy panel program Have I Got News For You managed to grow ratings for the news channel in its time slot.

According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, Have I Got News For You drew 737,000 total viewers in its first airing on Saturday, September 14. That wasn’t enough to beat its cable news competitors on Fox News or MSNBC, but it did represent a nice bump of +61% vs. CNN’s average ratings for the same time period over the last month. 

Notably, Have I Got News For You also retained much of the audience from its lead-in, CNN’s Saturday night repeat of Real Time With Bill Maher. (Maher drew 863,000 viewers.) The same can’t be said for the various programs CNN has run in the post-Maher time slot in recent weeks, namely, repeats of The Whole Story With Anderson Cooper, 1968: The Year That Changed America, and a rebroadcast of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s interview with Dana Bash.

As for the competition, One Nation with Brian Kilmeade on Fox News won the time slot Saturday night with an average 1,162,000 total viewers, while the first hour of he two-hour special MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024 came in second with 1,086,000 total viewers.

Have I Got News For You is CNN’s first original comedy series. Hosted by former Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr., each episode of the show sees two guest stars join team captains Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black as they play various games based on the preceding week’s news. The premiere show’s guest players were comedian Robin Thede and journalist Matt Welch. 

Have I Got News For You originated on the BBC in 1990. Its producer, Hat Trick Productions, developed the American adaptation with the CNN Originals team.