CNews viewership and political identity in France, Digi Mart USA News (Levallois-Perret, near Paris): In the dining room of a neighborhood bistro in Levallois-Perret, near Paris, the television above the bar is switched off. Two years ago, it continuously broadcast CNews, a familiar background presence for customers.
“It was too anxiety-inducing for them, they had their eyes glued to the screen and the news… And we were stressed by it too,” the owner said.
The formula still works for many viewers. In October, the channel retained its status as France’s top news channel, tied with BFMTV at a 3.6% audience share, and narrowly edged out its rival by a few thousandths of a point.
While CNews touted a “monthly record among 25-49 year olds” with a 2.4% share, the trend is largely toward an aging audience. As the outlet Les Jours noted in January, 85% of the channel’s audience is over 50, and its average viewer is 64 years old.
Can one conclude that CNews viewers are all right-wing “boomers”? Yes, but it is more complicated than that.
“We cannot speak of a social marker; there is no typical CNews viewer profile,” explains Jérémie Derhi, a researcher in information sciences. “It is more of an identity and cultural marker.”
Some viewers hold “very conservative tendencies and see in today’s world a challenge to their social norms,” the researcher notes. “They are trying to recover a France they once knew.” Among them is Michel, 79, a retired subscriber to Le Figaro for decades, who criticizes what he sees as the left’s control of public broadcasting and says he would consider “voting Le Pen in the second round,” agreeing with the National Rally on insecurity and immigration.
“It really annoys my wife that I watch CNews,” the retiree admits. “But they sometimes cover subjects you don’t see elsewhere, such as attacks on far-right people,” he adds.
Michel has always voted for the right, including the RPR, UMP and Les Républicains, and even voted for Macron in the last two presidential elections. He admires Sarah Knafo for her “intellectual level,” but still considers some CNews commentators “too extremist” and regularly prefers the “more professional” tone of BFMTV.
Upon learning of the scale of the petition calling for the channel’s removal, the retiree was surprised and objected, calling the idea “far-fetched.”
Filed in June on the National Assembly’s dedicated platform, the petition has gathered nearly 850,000 signatures to date, surging after the racist attack in Trappes. For Eva, 27, who denounces the “false information” regularly broadcast on CNews’s set, the petition’s demand is “legitimate.” In the living room of her father, a 60-year-old from Aveyron and the son of Spanish immigrants, the television is almost always tuned to Bolloré’s channel.
“It’s often a source of conflict,” Eva acknowledges; she places herself on the left. “He talks to me about anti-white racism and a lack of immigration control…
When I try to debate with him, I don’t find him objective, because his arguments come from what he hears on the broadcasts.”
“When you join one of the channel’s flagship programs, you find a friendly atmosphere, almost like at the bistro, and a bond of closeness forms,” Jérémie Derhi analyzes. This reassuring presence, combined with an “ideological focus and a nostalgic, reactionary reading of current events,” can make some viewers dependent.
On Facebook, the group “Je soutiens CNews” has roughly 145,000 members, many of whom rally to defend their cherished channel. “It’s the channel that gives the news without distortion and tells the pure truth,” one user insists, while another describes it as a channel of “common sense, clear-sightedness and patriotism.” Some express affection for Pascal Praud and the “good-natured” atmosphere of his set, while others reject “censorship from the far left.” One asks: “If the channel were really racist, it would have been shut down immediately, wouldn’t it?”
Between loyalty and the “repellent effect”: that is the suggestion of media historian Alexis Lévrier, who argues that the sanctions applied to C8 last year should also have applied to CNews. “The channel’s operation runs counter to the 1986 law on freedom of communication, which does not provide for such a strong angle,” he asserts.
“It should serve all French people, but it ultimately serves an ideology that targets ethnic groups and entire sections of the population.”
What gives CNews its strength also creates a “repellent effect” among those who want to see the channel disappear. “If racist discourse is structuring, it is the perversion of the principle of freedom of expression” that lies at the heart of Bolloré’s channel, according to Lévrier.
He believes that through its rejection of institutions, CNews “calls into question the existence of the democratic model,” and that some French people would be “ready for that,” while others are determined to fight this danger.
No one is indifferent to the channel’s content. “Not watching CNews is also a way of situating oneself socially,” Derhi observes.
The repeated opening of “Overton windows” strengthens the channel’s audiences, and “there is a very strong relationship of love and hatred toward its programs,” Lévrier adds. In 2025, it was reported that a CNews viewer remained on average 42 minutes without changing channels, compared with only 24 minutes on BFMTV.
Watching CNews means being loyal and feeling part of a circle of people who do not avoid “good information,” the kind they believe other media conceal. Deputies will vote next Tuesday, November 10, on how to respond to the petition calling for the channel led by Vincent Bolloré to be “removed.” The committee is chaired by Alexandre Portier of Les Républicains, the president of the Cultural Affairs Committee, the same committee that allowed Charles Alloncle to enjoy his (long) moment of fame by putting the entire public broadcasting sector through the wringer.
The Ciotti-aligned deputy will probably be less aggressive on the CNews case.
*The first name has been changed.
