Business and Economy Commentary

    New Ratings Data Shows FNC’s Post-Tucker Woes are Getting Even Worse

    By

    The ratings are in and Fox News is on a sprint to zero now that it has gotten rid of Tucker Carlson, with its ratings crash even more severe now than it initially was as people tune out for good. In fact, Fox News Channel’s primetime ratings are so bad that its winning streak is over after 120 weeks, with MSNBC beating it.

    According to the latest Nielsen data, FNC’s 8- to 11 pm viewership averaged 1,504,429. Meanwhile, the average primetime viewership at far-left MSNBC was 1,520,857. MSNBC thus narrowly beat out FNC, which had previously been the constant leader in cable news viewership.

    The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh took to Facebook to roast Fox News Channel over the coals for its Tucker decision and point out how negatively former Fox News viewers have reacted to its decision to get rid of its one populist host.

    Beginning, Walsh, noted that FNC used to be the undisputed leader among cable news channels, particularly for young people, saying, “For 120 straight weeks, Fox News was the most-watched cable news network in primetime. Its main competitors, MSNBC and CNN, never came close. In the key advertising demographic — people between the ages of 25 and 54 — Fox News was the undisputed leader.”

    But now that’s all gone, as it destroyed that support among conservative and right-wing young people that tuned in to watch Tucker by firing him. Now its left with the dregs of the conservative cable market and a few people, mainly older, that tune in to watch it out of habit. As Walsh put it: “But last week, after nearly two months of declining ratings following the ouster of Tucker Carlson, Fox News’ streak came to an abrupt and very unceremonious end. Last Friday, Fox News recorded its worst performance in primetime in the network’s history. Just 109,000 people between the ages of 25 to 54 tuned into Tucker Carlson’s old 8pm time slot, to watch the replacement show ‘Fox News Tonight.'”

    Walsh then put just how terrible those ratings results are into context, noting that the number of people who now tune in to watch Fox News Channel’s Tucker replacement, even on nights with important news, are fewer than those that tune in to random YouTube channels. As Walsh put it: “How bad is that? To put it in context, “Fox News Tonight” was ranked 41st out of all cable news shows on Friday. This is the time slot that used to routinely be ranked number one. Now YouTube streams of people playing with Legos get more viewers. And keep in mind — Fox News attracted those 109,000 viewers on a very busy news night, after the announcement of Donald Trump’s indictment. Not many people cared what Fox News anchors had to say about the indictment of a presidential frontrunner.“
    And what does that show? That, even if a few people still tune in to listen to Gutfeld or Hannity out of habit, FNC is imploding. Its one hope was that younger people would get used to watching it by turning it on to watch Tucker, as he actually represented, spoke about, and cared about their interests. Like Trump, he wanted an America that worked rather than one that only worked for the oligarchs. And now he’s gone, and FNC fired a guy for criticizing Joe Biden, as Walsh pointed out, saying, “Whatever you make of that, it’s clear that the implosion of Fox News is well underway. And it’s showing no signs of stopping. Last week, as Tucker discussed on his Twitter show Thursday, Fox News executives publicly condemned a veteran producer who wrote a banner criticizing Joe Biden. Five years ago, the banner wouldn’t have attracted any attention whatsoever. But under the current leadership at Fox News, it led to the producer leaving the network within 48 hours.“
    Walsh then connected FNC’s recent drift left with what happened to Bud Light and Target, saying that FNC is destroying what used to make it popular, or at least watchable. In his words: “That banner is the most interesting thing that’s happened in that time slot for about two months, so of course Fox News cracked down on it. What’s happening at Fox feels familiar. The network is on the same trajectory we saw with Bud Light, then Target. Fox News executives, for some reason, are destroying their own product, and now they’ve lost the trust of their customer base.“

    "*" indicates required fields

    A Republican should take over for Dianne Feinstein*
    This poll subscribes you to our premium network of content. Unsubscribe at any time.
    This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.




    Share.

    Related Posts