Fox News–A 21st Century MEDIA Titanic?

Once a Titan, now a Titanic?

Just as the Captain of the Titanic has gone down in history bearing a heavy share of the blame for that ship’s fateful collision with a rogue iceberg on her maiden voyage, the Rupert Murdoch’s spawn are teeing themselves up as reckless buffoons who are driving a once thriving media property into a ratings collapse. Since Fox News fully unmasked itself as a new bastion of anti-Trump hatred on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3rd, its conservative base of viewers have fled Fox’s daytime line up. Fox News, like the Titanic, is sinking.

If the Titanic had the equivalent of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity it might have stayed afloat. These two are keeping FOX NEWS from sinking into a well-deserved oblivion. I know that some of you reading this have given Fox the total boot. Others, however, are staying away from their daytime propaganda but still tuning into Tucker and Sean.

Take a look at the numbers for yourself (I’m publishing the ratings from Adweek below) comparing Friday, August 28, 2020 to Wednesday, November 11, 2020.

In August, Fox ruled the day over CNN and MSNBC with a “Total Day” number of 2,278,000. CNN and MSNBC combined had a total of 2,629,000. The picture is quite different today. Fox still “won” the day (barely) with 1,998,000 but CNN and MSNBC combined dwarfed Fox with 3,831,000. Fox has gone from having almost as many viewers as CNN and MSNBC combined to now being half the number that its competitors are drawing. That is a shrinking audience.

Look at the specific shows:

Neil Cavuto, who stupidly cut away from the President’s Press Secretary, has shed almost 200,000 viewers.

The Five, with the intolerable Juan Williams, lost almost 600,000.

Bret Baier is not doing much better–he has 330,000 fewer viewers.

Martha MacCallum’s 7pm show fell by almost 400,000 “fans.”

Laura Ingraham, who is still pushing back against Fox’s shift to the left, still lost 491,000 viewers compared to August.

Last, and also hemorrahaging, is Shannon Bream. She’s down by 450,000 watchers.

Those are significant numbers and should worry any news executive keen on putting butts in seats and eyes on screens.

Now for the good news for Fox. Tucker and Sean are still crushing it. Tucker exceeded his August numbers by a monster increase just shy of 400,000. Similar numbers for Sean–he’s up by whopping 505,000 over August.

The Murdoch children, with the help of RINO Paul Ryan, are trying to push Fox into the hate Trump camp. This is a stupid, short sighted move. The conservative core that once were a dependable constant under-girding Fox’s cable news supremacy. But those conservatives justifiably feel like the husband who has walked in on his wife who is copulating with his boss. That is a betrayal not easily or quickly forgiven.

It remains to be seen how long Tucker and Sean will be able to push back against the ideological shift to the left at Fox. Meanwhile, other news outlets–i.e. NewsMax, One America News and the Blaze, are gathering new viewers, which translates into new revenue streams. The left may want to crush the right, but their ham-handed moves appear to be breathing new life into alternatives in cable and social media. Let freedom reign.

Friday August 28, 2020

Total Viewers (Live+SD x 1,000)

Total Day: FNC: 2.278 | CNN: 1.076 | MSNBC: 1.503
Prime: FNC: 3.915 | CNN: 1.363 | MSNBC: 2.240

	FNC	CNN	MSNBC:
4PM	Cavuto: 1.733	Tapper: 1.386	Wallace: 1.765
5PM	Five: 3.618	Blitzer: 1.298	Wallace: —-
6PM	Baier:  2.661	Blitzer: 1.216	TheBeat: 1.583
7PM	MacCallum: 2.520	Burnett: 1.208	Reid: 1.874
8PM	Carlson: 4.273	Cooper: 1.513	Hayes: 1.846
9PM	HntySpcl: 3.755	Cooper: 1.308	Maddow: 3.017
10PM	Ingraham: 3.716	Lemon: 1.267	Last Word: 1.856
11PM	Bream: 2.243	Lemon: 1.137	Williams: 1.510

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Total Viewers (Live+SD x 1,000)

Total Day: FNC: 1.998 | CNN: 1.903 | MSNBC: 1.930
Prime: FNC: 4.051 | CNN: 2.639 | MSNBC: 2.773

	FNC	CNN	MSNBC:
4PM	Cavuto: 1.592	Tapper: 2.226	Wallace: 2.497
5PM	Five: 3.036	Blitzer: 2.468	Wallace: 2.344
6PM	Baier:  2.337	Blitzer: 2.158	Melber: 2.444
7PM	MacCallum: 2.125	Burnett: 2.442	Reid: 2.485
8PM	Carlson: 4.667	Cooper: 2.744	Hayes: 2.442
9PM	Hannity: 4.260	Cuomo: 2.904	Maddow: 3.198
10PM	Ingraham: 3.225	Lemon: 2.268	O’Donnell: 2.678
11PM	Bream: 1.798	Lemon: 1.571	Williams: 2.348