CNN’s other King–John King–has his own ratings problems, but the cable news network hasn’t yet widely discussed it because executives have been swamped handling other issues, reports the New York Times’ Media Decoder blog. Among those other issues is Larry King’s pending departure.

Since taking over the 7 p.m. time slot previously occupied by Lou Dobbs, "John King USA" has lost viewers, shedding more than 40% of the time period’s audience during the second quarter when compared with the year-earlier period.

Nevertheless, King has shown some improvement, boosting his viewers to 162,000 among those 25 to 54 years old, up from 109,000 viewers in April, although that’s still well below the competition on Fox News and MSNBC.

CNN executives are alert to the problem and one senior manager expressed concern privately about John King’s ratings as early as May, the story says.