CNN president admits the network depends on Trump for ratings: 'Donald Trump dominates

If sometimes it appears that CNN is obsessed with President Donald Trump, network president Jeff Zucker said there's an important reason for that -- the people want Trump.

Zucker told Vanity Fair that whenever CNN tries to turn some of its coverage away from Trump toward other issues in the world, it loses viewers. So, CNN gives the audience what it wants.

"We’ve seen that anytime you break away from the Trump story and cover other events in this era, the audience goes away," Zucker said. "So we know that, right now, Donald Trump dominates.”

People can't help themselves

Despite what some viewers tell Zucker, which is that they are sick of seeing Trump on the news so frequently, the audience makes its preference clear in how they tune in.

“People say all the time, ‘Oh, I don’t want to talk about Trump, I’ve had too much Trump,’ ” Zucker said. “And yet at the end of the day, all they want to do is talk about Trump."

Zucker said CNN prides itself on allowing people with both pro- and anti-Trump views, something he says MSNBC doesn't do.

“On MSNBC, you rarely hear from people who do support Trump," Zucker said. "We want to be home to both those points of view. It is true some of these folks are not very good with the facts, but that’s OK in the sense that it’s our job then to call them out."

Most profitable year ever

Despite being third in the ratings behind MSNBC and Fox News (which drew more prime-time viewers on average than the other two combined in October), CNN is reportedly on pace for its most profitable year ever.

(H/T The Hill)