Charles Barkley Rants After His New CNN Show Flops in the Ratings

Charles Barkley is sounding has a message for those who are concerned about his new show with Gayle King. The NBA Hall of Famer talked about King Charles on The Steam Room podcast and shared his thoughts on the show having a forgettable debut in terms of ratings. 

"I want to tell my team, 'Man, these Nielsen people are the biggest clowns in the world.' Name me one person you know with a Nielsen box?" Barkley asked, per Puck. "These Nielsen people try to say our ratings weren't great, but we won a certain demographic. Hey man, to my team: F— them. Don't you worry about what people tell you about your ratings. Nobody knows what people are watching. They don't!"

King Charles debuted on CNN on Nov. 27 and drew 501,000 viewers, the smallest audience of any CNN's primetime debuts this year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show pairs Charles and Gayle King of CBS Mornings, and they discuss news and culture as well as take calls. One big thing about King Charles is the show is pretaped, which is not the case for all of CNN's primetime shows. Another thing is King Charles did not get a big promotional push ahead of the premiere. 

"This show will be an exciting new way we are delivering culturally relevant programming and unique perspectives to our audience, from two incredibly dynamic personalities," Chris Licht, the chairman and CEO and CNN, said in a memo to CNN employees earlier this year. "We are excited that they are both able to join us in addition to their current respective roles with Gayle continuing to anchor CBS Mornings. King Charles exemplifies the one-team, one-company mentality with Charles playing double duty at CNN and in his role at WBD Sports."  

"I think that decorum and courtesy and kindness always work, "King said. "But everybody I know has an opinion on something. We just need to figure out a way to have a good conversation without tearing each other down. And I think we can do that."  

A rep from CNN told the New York Post that King Charles "performed competitively well in the demo, which has been CNN's general trend." The rep added that King Charles had the youngest median viewer age at 68 of any 10 p.m. cable news show.