There have been a number of shake ups at Fox News recently. In addition to the sexual harassment scandals that came to light last year, the New York Times reported on April 1st that Bill O’Reilly had also settled a sexual harassment lawsuit, leading to pressure against the network that culminated with O’Reilly’s termination.
Fox News’ co-President Bill Shine stepped down not long after, just days after Sean Hannity said that it would mean the “end of Fox as we know it” without Shine.
Given all the high-profile departures at Fox over the past year and change, are they suffering as a result? It sure looks like it. But that’s not the whole story – so is everyone else.
After several of the strongest months in their collective history, the major cable networks saw their ratings dip in April compared with an unprecedented first quarter.
Ratings in April dipped for CNN and Fox News in prime time from 8-11 p.m. compared with last quarter, which the networks heralded as record-shattering.
H/T: Business Insider
So what’s to blame? More likely than not, the networks simply got a boost from the election cycle, and early coverage of Trump’s early days in office. Once we finally came close to the 100 day mark, there was a natural decline in traffic.
Interesting however is that despite all the turmoil that no one else has to deal with, Fox News is still dominating with the highest prime-time ratings of any cable network.
Fox averages 2,441,000 total viewers in prime-time, which includes 488,000 viewers between the age of 25 and 54. Total viewership was up 28 percent, with a 42 percent year-over-year increase in their target demographic.
MSNBC also saw a ratings boost earlier in the year, averaging 1,564,000 total viewers between 8-11pm, which includes 359,000 viewers aged 25-54. That marks an 82 percent increase in primetime viewers over the last year – but it’s easy to show a large percent increase when you have a relatively small audience.
Somehow, the anchor drawing in the bulk of MSNBC’s primetime audience is Rachel Maddow, whose 9pm show averaged 2.4 million total viewers (less total viewers than Tucker Carlson, but more in the 25-54 demo). Maddow, by the way, has spent more time since the inauguration on Trump’s alleged Russia ties than all other issues combined, so if the leftists you’ve been interacting with as of late seem to be wearing a tinfoil hat, you know where they got it from.
She also saw a spike in popularity after she totally, completely flubbed an attempted hit-piece on Trump’s taxes, where she accidentally proved that Trump not only paid taxes, but paid tens of millions in taxes.
What do you think? Do you think the recent problems at Fox News have caused ratings to decline?
