With Disastrous Ratings, Charles Barkley and Gayle King Bid Farewell to First “King Charles” Season

Six months ago, Charles Barkley and Gayle King’s blockbuster attempt to bring CNN out of its ratings decline premiered. King Charles defied expectations but not in the way everyone wanted. On April 10, the limited series ended, as was the plan along. Barkley and King, after all, have year-round commitments. The show was not cancelled as a few speculate. The possibility of it being renewed though looks uncertain since numbers are not on their side.

Chuck was as unfiltered as he is on TNT. He’s even nominated for a sports Emmy. But the same success didn’t translate to a current affairs concept. Barkley can downplay the ratings game as much as he wishes but this might be the end of his primetime talk show host career.

Primetime Chuck hits TV

After two decades in sports broadcast, with Emmy Awards as a studio analyst, and a few hundred viral moments, it was announced that Charles Barkley was going to head his own primetime talk show. Joining him was veteran journalist, Gayle King. Interestingly, Chuck was dropping retirement bombs leading up to that announcement. But the idea of working with his longtime friend, King, was tempting enough to put off retirement.

This combination was supposed to bring back viewership to CNN which was struggling against a crowded cable sector. Barkley knows their desperation well. He was talking about TNT and ESPN being terrified of losing NBA media rights to Amazon or Apple when he said he would retire before the current NBA contract expires in 2025. He even called CNN a sinking “Titanic” after agreeing to the show.

After a lot of buildup, King Charles premiered in November 2023. Shaquille O’Neal sent a voice message expressing his condolences to King for working with his frenemy. Steve Kerr was among the first guests to confront Chuck on calling the Warriors cooked. Though having Sir Charles talk about something that wasn’t sports was the big draw, the show only drew 510,000 viewers at the premiere. 139,00 of those viewers were in the 25-54 age range, the target demography. That was the smallest rating any CNN show premiere drew in 2023.

To put it in perspective, it’s well behind rivals in the time slot. Fox News and MSNBC’s shows drew closer to 2 million viewers. The ratings reportedly concerned CNN’s back office. But insiders claimed that the producers were positive the trend would see an uptick and the show would draw new viewers to CNN. However, the ratings continued to decline in the subsequent episodes.

Sir Charles takes the classy route

In Chuck-talk, that’s calling the people at Nielsen, “The biggest clowns in the world.” After only a couple of episodes, Barkley addressed the negative rumors on The Steam Room initially. He assured the team at King Charles that ratings didn’t mean anything. His positivity infected CNN, where sources told the media that the ratings don’t reflect the views on streaming sites. They also boasted a young and diverse audience who’ve made several Chuckisms viral.

There were also rumors that Barkley and King weren’t getting along behind the scenes. Some insiders claim that King wanted Chuck to study the subjects every show. Barkley, however, wanted to keep it authentic and stuck to his unfiltered style. He was unfiltered, alright, when he played into the rumors on King Charles itself. He’d take every chance to remind Gayle they’re not supposed to get along according to all the rumors and took a jab at the commentary on them.

Barkley can rightfully call out the false rumors. But no matter how many F-bombs he throws at Nielsen, that’s the only metric the show’s continuity depended on. In January 2024, the viewership dropped a disheartening 20%. The January 31 episode fell to 400,000 total viewers. 89,000 of it was in the target demographic.

Renewed hope for King Charles?

Towards the end of King Charles’ season finale, Gayle King said, “Something tells me Charles, just saying, this will not be the last time we’re working together.” And Chuck responded, “Call me Gayle.” Does that mean CNN is renewing the show? Are they doing another show? Are they meeting for a Diet Coke before the NBA playoffs?

Chris Licht, who created King Charles, was fired before the show even premiered. The new CEO Mark Thompson was tasked with reviving ratings. He did a major upheaval at the network with lineup changes. There’s no comment on King Charles‘ future as Thompson let it run its course.

King Charles ended with a lack of grandiose and little success. Barkley is now in the playoff season. He still hasn’t confirmed what his future on TV will be after this NBA season. We’d have to wait and see if King Charles has a future after Barkley is not occupied with the NBA season.