So the second hour of Anderson Cooper 360 is getting the ax… but CNN would have you believe that it’s because Anderson is TOO successful to handle a full two hours!

Variety’s Michael Learmonth reports today that “Cooper averaged 747,000 viewers in his second hour in August, less than O’Reilly’s 965,000 and a steep drop from the 1.1 million he averaged during the first hour, according to Nielsen.”

Well, Cooper must have a best friend named Nielsen, because if you look at the year to date numbers for the show (instead of just August), they tell a much different picture.

YTD, 360 averages 831,000 total viewers from 10 p.m. - 11 p.m., and only 524,000 from 11 p.m. - midnight.  This is even using the famous “live plus Same Day” info that CNN uses to tout ratings.

Rumor has it that the real reason Cooper’s second hour got axed is not only because of the drastic decline in the second hour, but that Prima Donna Cooper hated doing a second hour… he felt that since he is the marquee talent for the network, he shouldn’t have to do two hours in prime!