CNN’s Saturday Night repeat of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher was the network’s most-watched primetime program last week.
The episode, which featured Bill Maher’s twelve-minute tale of his visit with Donald Trump at the White House, drew 900,000 total viewers, the largest audience for a Maher rebroadcast on CNN since March 1st. That’s according to Nielson live-plus-same-day data.
While that was enough to outrank every other show on CNN’s primetime lineup over the preceding week, Real Time still came in second in its timeslot—ahead of a new episode of MSNBC’s Ayman (with 390,000 total viewers), but behind a new episode of Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News (at 1,535,000 viewers).
CNN first began airing Saturday night repeats of Maher’s Friday night HBO series in March of 2023, where it has performed well from the start. In fact, based on the show’s popularity Saturday nights on CNN, the network green-lit its own comedy panel show, Have I Got News For You, to air after Maher. That show, too, regularly delivers large audiences relative to the CNN’s other primetime programming.
Maher stirred controversy when he accepted an offer to meet with Trump from mutual friend Kid Rock. Maher has long been critical of Trump, with the two volleying insults back and forth for many years. Still, by all accounts, their meeting was cordial, with Maher telling viewers it was hard for him to reconcile the ingratiating Trump he visited in person with the president that he sees on TV.
After sharing the details of his White House visit on last week’s show, Maher hosted a panel discussion with his guests Steve Bannon, Piers Morgan and Josh Rogin. Rogin, an opinion journalist at The Washington Post (and the only person on the panel who does not have a personal relationship with Trump), faced Maher’s wrath when he suggested that the host had been swayed by his proximity to the president, a claim Maher angrily denied.
Too bad we can’t get a full episode on CNN. Entire segments removed to accommodate commercials. Advertising is more important than the actual show.
No longer watching on Friday nights so we had to tape and watch repeat on HBO.
After watching him kiss the ring and make a monster sound human then have Bannon as a guest after having musk, RFK, Jr then Kelly Ann Conway we won’t be watching anytime soon or ever.
Agree!
same here.
As a retired teacher, coach, sports, official, and a Vietnam veteran as well, I am saddened by the utter stupidity of an elitist like Bill Maher. When he became part owner of the Mets, this was all the elitist clown talked about for a month during the opening monologue on his show. I cannot believe he was suckered so easily, how he angrily accosted Rogin, and how easily he was won over by Trump. Bottom line: Maher has got to the point where he thinks his shit don’t stink. He’s wrong, it does and so does he as a person.
I’m a big fan of Bill Maher’s and have always been. One of the things I like about him the most is he is always willing to talk with everyone and hear their opinions, even though he might always agree with them or they with him. Those who don’t do so is why this country is so divided.
You have just earned a massive bitchslapping to Kingdom Come, for that stupid opinion of yours, maggot!
Bunghole Bill Maher doesn’t care about the temperature of the country! He’s a toxic narcissistic toad who thinks he’s the smartest man in the room, and who thinks his opinions are fact based. When, in reality, he’s a stupid, lazy assed bum that gets super pissy when people don’t bow down to his so called brilliance, that you’re too willing to accomodate!
The fact that you believe he’s brilliant makes you a retarded loser, bitchface!
Bill brought his celebrity and left his spine at the door.
What does it say about a loser network like CNN that their highest rated show of the week is a rerun of that toxic narcissist and forever pariah to society, Bunghole Bill Maher? Both he and CNN need to die horrible deaths!