Parker Out at CNN's 'Parker Spitzer'

CNN has announced the departure of Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist Kathleen Parker from the network, leaving former New York governor Eliot Spitzer to host a new show dubbed “In the Arena.”

CNN's “Parker Spitzer,” which debuted last October at 8 p.m., was supposed to be a daily debate hashing issues in a substantive, analytical manner with Parker leaning right and Spitzer leaning left. Ratings, however, remained horrid.

Last week, the show drew about 500,000 viewers a night, according to Nielsen ratings. That’s about half of what Lawrence O’Donnell pulled in at MSNBC and one-sixth the numbers Bill O’Reilly received on Fox News.

Back in the fall, CNN had high hopes for "Parker Spitzer."

It was obvious the pair never got along well. 

There were even reports Spitzer felt he excelled when she was out sick and he hosted alone during the recent Egypt crisis.  Still a long way to go to make this show watchable.

CNN's 'Parker Spitzer' on Deathwatch

I don't know what has been worse, the ratings for CNN"s new show Parker Spitzer, or the show itself.

Here's how the show has fared so far in its time slot:

Fox News Channel: The O’Reilly Factor: 3,112,000 viewers (722,000 in the key demo 25-54)
MSNBC: Countdown with Keith Olbermann: 1,115,000 viewers (329,000 in 25-54)
HLN: Nancy Grace: 468,000 viewers (149,000 in 25-54)
CNN: Parker Spitzer debut: 454,000 viewers (118,000 in 25-54 demo).

"Parker Spitzer" actually lost audience from the lead-in provided by John King at 7 p.m. (471,000 viewers). And King's show has severe ratings issues.  This is real nad news for this show, and it looks like another bad programming decision for CNN.

Campbell Brown left CNN in July, having averaged 591,000 total viewers in this time slot for the year.