CNN's The Lead has a ways to go before it's anywhere near the front of the pack.
Four days into its run during the 4 p.m. hour, the show fronted by network newcomer Jake Tapper continues to come up shy of its time-slot predecessor, Wolf Blitzer's The Situation Room.
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Thursday's outing of The Lead With Jake Tapper, which featured an interview with Jimmy Kimmel about NBC's Jay Leno dilemma, brought in just 326,000 viewers. It marked the lowest viewership since the premiere, with the series now averaging 42 percent fewer viewers than the same four days last week.
In the targeted adults 25-54 demo, The Lead was up from its Wednesday low to 72,000 viewers -- though it's averaging a 50 percent drop from Situation Room for the same times last week.
Thursday saw more significant leads for Fox News' Your World With Neil Cavuto (1.07 million viewers and 174,000 in the key demo), with MSNBC also leading CNN with Martin Bashir (450,000 viewers and 101,000 in the key demo).
The Lead marks CNN's first show launch since Jeff Zucker took the reins of the cable news network this year.
