After “parting ways” with highly regarded broadcaster Tucker Carlson, Fox News is still coping with the consequences. The far-left channel MSNBC has continued to profit from the network’s ratings decline and has surpassed Fox News in a number of important demographics.
“MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow led prime time on Monday with 2.53 million total viewers and 212,000 viewers in the key 25-54 age demographic. Maddow’s haul was enough to boost MSNBC’s prime-time average to number one in total viewers. MSNBC won prime time with 1.9 million total viewers, while Fox News came in second with 1.73 million total viewers. Fox won the demo, however, with 178,000 viewers to CNN’s 161,000 and MSNBC’s 160,000,” according to Mediaite.
Following Carlson’s abrupt departure from the airwaves in late April, Fox News’ cable news ratings have plummeted among the critical 25- to 54-year-old age group.
Since things have become so terrible at the network, Joy Reid of MSNBC has surpassed Sean Hannity in the crucial demo.
Reporter Glenn Greenwald, a liberal, tweeted: “The 8 pm slot on Fox with Tucker was not only consistently number 1 in the key demo – 25-54 – but routinely had 400,000 viewers or more. Without Tucker, it’s crashed to worse-than-MSNBC levels: barely 100,000 people. Hannity is in 14th place, behind Joy Reid! A total collapse. It’s so clear Fox’s firing of Tucker was not just financially driven, bereft of the Murdochs’ and Paul Ryan’s ideological goals. Firing Tucker destroyed its prime-time ratings. There’s no argument Tucker’s twice-a-week Twitter postings compete with Fox. They want him silenced.”
Since Carlson was unceremoniously fired, Hannity’s primetime program has been under fire.
The audience for Hannity’s show, which peaked at about 2 million viewers in the last few weeks of May, has decreased to roughly 1.7 million on average so far in June. Prior to Carlson’s departure, Hannity’s primetime program regularly attracted about 3 million viewers each night.
Left-wing rival MSNBC has dethroned Fox News Channel in prime time slots after years of dominating cable news ratings.
“Nielsen data regarding the week ending this past Sunday was shared on Twitter on Tuesday by A.J. Katz, a reporter specializing in the cable news business. According to the data, Fox’s primetime 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET viewership averaged 1,504,429. The average viewership for the more left-leaning MSNBC over the same time frame averaged 1,520,857, narrowly beating out the conservative network that has long been a leader in cable news viewership,” Newsweek reported.
Recently, Fox News also unveiled its all-new prime-time schedule and identified the person who will take over Tucker Carlson’s time slot.
The network announced that Jesse Watters would take Carlson’s place at 8 p.m. in a press statement. Sean Hannity will remain at 9 p.m., Greg Gutfeld will move to 10 p.m., and Laura Ingraham will shift from 10 p.m. to 7 p.m. Trace Gallagher, a longtime news anchor, will start at 11 p.m.
According to Mediaite,“A rotating cast of hosts stepped in to replace Carlson after he was abruptly fired from Fox News one week after it reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over the airing of 2020 election lies. The ratings dipped significantly from the Carlson era, who in his seven years helming Tucker Carlson Tonight emerged as a controversial but popular host at the network.”
“Watters joined Fox News two decades ago, working his way up from production assistant to on-air commentator on Bill O’Reilly’s hit prime-time show,” the outlet added. “Perhaps the biggest shake-up is moving the top-rated late-night show Gutfeld! from 11 PM to an hour earlier.”
“In recent years, he has become one of the most-watched personalities on the network, as co-host of the top-rated show The Five and solo host of his own program Watters’ World, which debuted in the 7 p.m. slot in 2022,” the statement concluded.
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