Fox News is still the top cable network, but MSNBC is now a close number two, and the primetime lineup change at Fox has not brought viewers back.
Research from Media Matters shows that Fox’s new primetime lineup is not working, “A new Media Matters analysis finds that Fox News’ prime-time ratings have cratered since Tucker Carlson’s firing, with ratings down in both the key 25-54-year-old demographic (over 45%) and total audience (roughly 30%)….During the 15 weeks after Carlson was fired, Fox’s average prime-time ratings dropped roughly 30% compared to the 15 weeks leading up to his firing. Average prime-time viewers in the key demographic of 25-54-year-olds dropped over 45%. The ratings for Carlson’s previous timeslot have dropped even more — in the 15 weeks since he was fired, Fox’s 8 p.m. slot has had an over 40% decrease in ratings for all viewers and a nearly 60% decrease for viewers in the key 25-54 demographic compared to the 15 weeks before Carlson was ousted.”
A look at the most recent week of cable news ratings from TVNewser confirms the struggles at Fox News. For example, on Monday of this week, MSNBC won the 4 PM, 9 PM, 10 PM, and 11 PM. Fox News 5 PM through 8 PM. In terms of total viewers Fox beat MSNBC 2.2 million viewers to 2.1 million viewers.
For the previous week, Fox News averaged 1.8 million primetime viewers to MSNBC’s 1.5 million viewers.
Fox News thought that they could plugin Jesse Watters and make him the new Tucker Carlson and everything would be fine. Things are fine to the degree that Fox News is still on top, but the margin between Fox and MSNBC is shrinking. The Fox News audience seems to have been reduced to the core viewership who will watch anyone Fox puts on.
Things are not going great at Fox News and as Trump’s legal woes mount, it could get even worse for the conservative media leader.