EXCLUSIVE: ALARM BELLS RINGING AT CNN AS PRIMETIME VIEWERSHIP COLLAPSES BELOW 500,000

Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper Cannot Survive Much Longer on These Numbers

There’s no sugarcoating it: this is bad — very bad.

Sources tell #ShuterScoop that CNN’s latest ratings disaster has triggered full-scale panic inside the network’s glass-walled offices. The once-proud cable news giant fell below 500,000 total viewers in primetime this week — and a stunning under 100,000 viewers in the critical 25-54 demo — numbers so dire that even senior executives are admitting privately that they "cannot make any money" with these results.

“This is not a bump in the road,” one insider confides. “This is a death spiral.”

Fox News, despite seeing a dip below 3 million viewers, trounced CNN, while MSNBC doubled CNN’s numbers with 1.53 million primetime viewers.

Inside CNN, the fear is laser-focused on the network’s biggest — and most expensive — names: Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper.

“With the salaries these guys command, these ratings are financially unsustainable,” a highly placed source says. “Neither can survive much longer if things stay like this. It’s simple math. They’re too expensive for a network barely pulling half a million viewers.”

Executives are now desperately hoping that CNN’s wall-to-wall coverage of Pope Francis' funeral will provide a ratings lifeline.

Anderson Cooper has been dispatched to Rome at enormous expense, insiders say — and everyone knows this is his make-or-break moment.

"If Anderson can’t bring in viewers reporting live from the death of a pope, it's over," says a veteran producer. "There are no bigger global news stories than this. If audiences still don’t tune in, they’re not coming back."

Every meeting at CNN now is about cost-cutting, saving face, and quietly preparing for even worse headlines.

“They know they’re on borrowed time,” the source warns.

Stay tuned. #ShuterScoop will keep you posted as this CNN crisis continues to spiral.