In a total shocker, Fox News finally got some bad news in the ratings department. The very profitable cable network usually dominates both conservative and liberal competition.
But that may all be changing after Newsmax’s Greg Kelly Reports outrated The Story with Martha MacCallum on Fox News among the coveted demographic of 25- to 54-year-olds.
This marks the first time that has happened in history. Kelly’s show averaged 229,000 viewers among the coveted demographic, while MacCallum averaged 203,000 viewers.
Fox Corp. chief financial officer Steve Tomsic said that Fox News “has stood the test of time, and every time there’s been skepticism about what the future looks like, we’ve pierced through and hit another high.”
“So, we feel super confident about Fox News being able to compete in any environment going forward.” “We’re here to stay,” Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said.
From CNN:
The margin was narrow — Kelly averaged 229,000 viewers in the demo and MacCallum averaged 203,000 — but it is still a milestone in the cable news industry.
Before the election, Newsmax was not regarded as a formidable competitor to Fox; it was mostly dismissed as one of a handful of wannabe challengers.
But President Trump’s loss on November 3 changed the cable TV calculus. Viewers who were frustrated when Fox admitted the truth of Trump’s loss sought other options. Trump encouraged them to try Newsmax.
Newsmax — and Kelly in particular — offered a safe space in which Biden was not called president-elect and Trump was not yet defeated.
Through the post-election weeks in November, as Trump’s legal team suffered dozens of losses in court in its attempt to overturn the results, Kelly insisted that he believed Trump would still prevail.
His 7 p.m. program consists of long, pro-Trump, anti-media commentaries of the type typically found later in the evening on Fox. And a certain subset of viewers are rewarding him for it. Kelly’s show is usually Newsmax’s highest-rated show of the day.
“We’re here to stay,” Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said Tuesday evening. “The ratings are showing that.”
Fox News is still four times higher-rated than Newsmax at any given time of day, according to Nielsen. Among viewers of all ages, Fox averaged 1.36 million viewers around the clock on Monday, while Newsmax averaged 316,000 viewers.
.@FoxNews daytime is not watchable. In a class with CNN & MSDNC. Check out @OANN, @newsmax and others that are picking up the slack. Even a boring football game, kneeling and all, is better!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2020
