Report: 'CNN This Morning' Had Ratings Spike WITHOUT Lemon

Don Lemon’s three-day hiatus from “CNN This Morning” resulted in a 5% increase in viewership for the struggling cable news show, which was thrown into turmoil by the co-host’s sexist remarks about GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley last week.

Viewership of “CNN This Morning” reached a total of 617,000 households on Feb. 17 — the first day of Lemon’s absence. The next day, viewership reached 678,000 total households during the three-hour block this past Monday, according to The NY Post citing data provided by Samba TV, the analytics firm that provides real-time data on audience measurement for streaming services.

“CNN This Morning” attracted an even larger audience on Tuesday, when it drew 709,000 households, according to Samba TV. Lemon returned on Wednesday.

“Following the backlash from his remarks on presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s age, Lemon’s two-day absence from the studio actually appears to have boosted the network’s average ratings,” Dallas Lawrence, a senior vice president at Samba TV, told The Post.

“Average viewership the two days following his comments was up 5% compared to the average daily viewership the week before,” Lawrence said.

“In fact, two out of the three most-watched days in the past eight analyzed were the days in which Lemon was absent.”

Samba TV’s numbers contradict those of Nielsen, which showed that viewership of “CNN This Morning” dipped during Lemon’s hiatus.