'They've Turned It Into the Anderson Cooper Network, and It's Not Working'

Smug sanctimony can only take you so far, apparently.

The former host of "Celebrity Mole" should be happy he signed a multimillion-dollar, multiyear contract with CNN last year during the presidential race, when ratings were at an all-time high. If his contract were up now, Cooper would probably have to settle for far less.

The ratings have plunged for his show, "Anderson Cooper 360," since Obama's inauguration, and the drop in May has been steeper, especially in the coveted 25-54 demographic, where he's down nearly 30 percent from the previous month, averaging less than 250,000 demo viewers.

Tuesday night, Cooper raked in only 615,000 viewers overall. But it wasn't his slowest night ever -- that was May 8, when he clocked in a lousy 499,000 viewers.

A rep for Cooper wouldn't discuss May numbers but said, "Year to date, 'AC360' is having its second-best performance ever with an average of 1.161 million overall viewers and 369,000 in the target demographic. It has an impressive 51 percent advantage over MSNBC in total viewers and a 41 percent lead over MSNBC in the 25-54 demographic."

But insiders say top brass is questioning the CNN strategy of focusing so narrowly on Cooper in all their promos. "They've turned it into the Anderson Cooper network, and it's not working," said one source.

Maybe they should invite Liz Cheney back to throw another beating on him.

I'd tune in for that.