'Bloodbath': Fox News suffers ratings crash, prime-time viewership plummets in key demo



The ratings of Fox News continue to crash following the firing of Tucker Carlson.

In its first week without Carlson, Fox News Channel’s prime-time viewership tumbled 29.6% from the previous week.

The Los Angeles Times reported, "Fox News Channel averaged 1.449 million viewers for its prime-time programming between April 24 and Sunday, third among cable networks, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday."

Carlson's 8 p.m. time slot has been replaced with "Fox News Tonight," which was hosted by Brian Kilmeade last week and Lawrence Jones this week.

Approximately 1.48 million viewers tuned in to "Fox News Tonight" on Tuesday. By comparison, Carlson averaged over 3 million total viewers per night from April 17 to 21 – the final week of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" airing on Fox News.

In Carlson's final week before being fired, episodes of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" accounted for the five most-watched programs on Fox News.

On Tuesday, "Fox News Tonight" lagged behind in the key 25-54 age demographic against the direct competition of MSNBC's "All in with Chris Haynes" and CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."

Blaze Media CEO Tyler Cardon noted that Fox News Channel's 25-54 demographic ratings have crashed by a whopping 75% since Carlson was fired by the cable news network compared to the first-quarter ratings of this year.

\u201cSince firing Tucker Carlson, Fox News Channel\u2019s ratings in the all-important 25-54 demo have fallen off a cliff: \n\n\u20226pm ET: -42%\n\u20227pm ET: -62%\n\u20228pm ET: -75% \n\u20229pm ET: -70%\n\u202210pm ET: -66%\n\u202211pm ET: -49%\n\nOof.\u201d
— Tyler Carditis (@Tyler Carditis) 1683139052

Former Fox News star Megyn Kelly called the ratings of her former employer a "bloodbath."

"Bloodbath. Not even Bud Lite (which is currently giving away its beer in an effort to get ppl to pls pls drink it) lost this much of its customer base," Kelly tweeted on Wednesday.

\u201cBloodbath.\nNot even Bud Lite (which is currently giving away its beer in an effort to get ppl to pls pls drink it) lost this much of its customer base.\u201d
— Megyn Kelly (@Megyn Kelly) 1683149946

Last week, Kelly said that Fox News is "clearly determined to destroy" Carlson.

The few bright spots for Fox News in the key demo were the "The Five" hosted by Greg Gutfeld in the 5 p.m. time slot with 301,000 viewers and "Gutfeld!" in the 11 p.m. slot with 216,000 key demo viewers.

Some of the disgruntled Fox News audience may have migrated to Newsmax.

"On the day Carlson was fired, Newsmax's 8 p.m. offering — hosted by former Fox News host Eric Bolling — drew a competitive 531,000 total viewers, five times larger than a week earlier and only 200,000 behind CNN's 8 p.m. hour," according to the Washington Post. "Bolling's show got up to 562,000 on Tuesday night but then dropped to 456,000 by Thursday."

A new poll shows that Tucker could have an immediate audience if he were to launch his own independent show.

According to a Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey of 1,500 eligible U.S. voters conducted on April 30, 36% of Americans would be "significantly likely" or "likely" to watch an independent online show hosted by Carlson.

Carlson's popularity was evident in a video released on Twitter after his termination. The video went viral with over 80 million views and was liked more than 970,000 times.

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Debut of Don Lemon's 'CNN This Morning' show is a ratings bomb



New management at CNN is hoping that shuffling Don Lemon from primetime to a new morning show will increase ratings at the struggling network. However, the debut of the new "CNN This Morning" was a ratings bomb.

"CNN This Morning" took over the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. time slot from its predecessor, "New Day." The show features co-hosts Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins.

CNN has heavily promoted the new a.m. political talk show since Oct. 20.

The promotional trailer for the new show features all three co-hosts at a coffee shop talking about how they're all good friends. In the video, Harlow commended Lemon for being a "real friend" because he flew to Slovenia for her wedding.

Harlow explained, "We need to cover more of what is happening across America."

Lemon said of the new show, "It's really all about conversation. We are the place for accuracy, and we are the place for content."

However, the promotion for the new cable news show did not pay dividends in the debut of "CNN This Morning."

"CNN This Morning" debuted to an average of 387,000 total viewers on Tuesday. The scarcely-watched "New Day" actually had better ratings than the show that replaced it. "New Day" averaged 413,000 daily viewers in 2022 before it was canceled.

"CNN This Morning" also struggled to grab eyeballs from the coveted 25-54 demographic, only getting 71,000 in the age group targeted by advertisers.

IndieWire reported, "From a year-to-date perspective, the 'CNN This Morning' series premiere was down 6 percent in total viewers and -17 percent in the demo."

CNN's cable news competitors crushed the debut of "CNN This Morning."

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” more than doubled “CNN This Morning” with 793,000 total viewers on Tuesday, plus 114,000 in the 25-54 demographic. Fox News' "Fox & Friends" dominated with 1.5 million total viewers on Tuesday and 236,000 in the target group.

Fox News noted, "Repeats of 'Young Sheldon' and 'The Big Bang Theory' on TBS, ESPN’s 'Around the Horn,' decades-old reruns of 'Gunsmoke' on INSP and 'The Andy Griffith Show' on TV Land and TLC’s 'Little People, Big World' were among the basic cable offerings on Monday that had larger audiences than the debut of 'CNN This Morning.'"

Tuesday's debut of "CNN This Morning" was a ratings disaster despite the inaugural episode featuring a pre-recorded interview between Lemon and the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman.

CNN's chairman and CEO Chris Licht has high hopes for the Lemon-centric show.

"There is no stronger combination of talent than Don, Poppy, and Kaitlan to deliver on our promise of a game-changing morning news program," Licht said when the show was announced in September. "They are each uniquely intelligent, reliable, and compelling; together they have a rare and palpable chemistry. Combined with CNN’s resources and global newsgathering capabilities, we will offer a smart, bold, and refreshing way to start the day."

There have been several changes that have taken place at the network since Licht took over.

It was also announced this week that CNN anchor Jake Tapper was being demoted from the primetime slot that he started just weeks ago back to his late-afternoon television show.

Following a six-month review of CNN's business, Licht will reportedly cut some jobs at the cable news network.

"We will be strategic in this process and will minimize the impact on our core newsgathering operation and digital, both of which have already executed smart changes," Licht wrote last month in a memo to employees. "Let me be clear: I will not allow these changes to affect our position as the world’s leading news source, and we will continue to invest in growth areas. When we conclude this process, CNN will still be the largest, most-respected newsgathering organization in the world. We will continue to cover any story, anywhere, any time–with more resources than anyone else. Full stop."

You can watch the promotional trailer for "CNN This Morning" below.

CNN This Morning www.youtube.com

Brian Stelter gets trashed by his own guest, Michael Wolff tells CNN host: 'You are one of the reasons why people can't stand the media'​​​



CNN host Brian Stelter was mercilessly trashed on his own CNN show on Sunday by his guest, author Michael Wolff. The author was on the cable TV show "Reliable Sources" to promote his latest book about former President Donald Trump, but ended up slamming the corporate media and Stelter for being in "its own bubble."

"I think you yourself... while you're a nice guy... you're full of sanctimony. You've become one of the parts of the problem of the media," Wolff said of Stelter. "You come on here and have a monopoly on truth. You know exactly how things are supposed to be done. You are one of the reasons why people can't stand the media."

Stelter attempted to laugh off the criticisms, "You're cracking me up."

The CNN host asked what he should do differently, to which the author responded, "Don't talk so much. Listen more."

"You know people have genuine problems with the media," Wolff replied. "The media doesn't get the story right, the media exists in its own bubble."

Wolff said Stelter is "incredibly repetitive," saying the "same old stuff week after week."

"You're the flip side of Donald Trump," Wolff stated. "Fake news, and you say, 'Virtuous news.'"

Stelter attempted to defend his cable TV news show by saying, "We just figure out what is real."

"Well figuring out what is real is not so easy," Wolff said before blasting Stelter yet again, "Most people don't want to turn to Brian Stelter to tell us what's real."

Stelter tried to laugh off the insult, and asked Wolff, "Why'd ya bother coming on CNN a couple times this week?"

Wolff delivered an honest and stinging rebuttal, "You know, I'm a book salesman."

Michael Wolff: "You are the flip side of Donald Trump... most people don't want to turn to Brian Stelter to tell u… https://t.co/ol6TTm6UNk
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) 1626624273.0

Wolff's assessment of the media is correct, according to a recent Gallup poll that shows the media is one of the American institutions with the least amount of cofidence. The poll shows that a mere 21% of respondents said they had "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers, while just 16% of Americans said they had the same of television news. The only institution that had lower scores was Congress, which only 12% of Americans had confidence in.

The lack of confidence and lack of Donald Trump has hurt cable TV news networks, especially CNN.

Deadline reported on the cable TV ratings for June:

In primetime, Fox News topped with an average of 2.13 million viewers, compared to 1.31 million for MSNBC and 798,000 for CNN. Compared to the same month a year earlier, Fox News was off 42%, MSNBC was down 36% and CNN dropped 57%. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News drew an average of 329,000, down 50%; compared to 179,000 for CNN, falling 68%; and 166,000 for MSNBC, off by 48%.

The ratings for May were equally as disappointing:

Fox News averaged 2.2 million primetime viewers in May to finish as the only basic cable channel to average more than two million viewers from 8-11 p.m. ET. MSNBC finished second with an average of 1.5 million and TNT, ESPN and HGTV rounded out the top five while CNN failed to crack the one-million viewer benchmark, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Stelter's "Reliable Sources" averaged only 810,000 total viewers for the May 2 episode, which was the lowest-rated episode of the year at the time. But viewership tanked even more in June, when "Reliable Sources" averaged a mere 786,000 viewers, which is down 56% from its January totals.

CNN's 'Reliable Sources' suffers lowest ratings of the year — and it gets even worse for host Brian Stelter



The post-President Trump world has left many media outlets hurting for clicks and viewers, but possibly the hardest-hit network could be CNN. "Reliable Sources" suffered its lowest ratings of the year, and yet somehow the news gets even worse for host Brian Stelter.

"Reliable Sources" averaged only 810,000 total viewers for the May 2 episode, which was the smallest audience the show had so far this year, according to Fox News. It gets even worse for the struggling Sunday morning cable TV news show because in the highly coveted demographic of adults ages 25-54, "Reliable Sources" was able to garner an abysmal 163,000 viewers. The news opinion program had viewership below 1 million for five consecutive weeks.

To add insult to injury, "Reliable Sources" had better ratings without regular host Stelter, who has often been labeled as a "hall monitor" by his critics. The previous week's episode with fill-in host John Avalon notched 907,000 viewers, nearly 100,000 more than when Stetler returned from vacation. Avalon also did better with the advertiser-friendly 25-54 demo, averaging 182,000 viewers.

"Reliable Sources" claims to examine "the media world – telling the story behind the story – how the news gets made," but often spends large portions of the show criticizing Fox News, especially with Donald Trump not available as a viable target since he is out of the White House.

Turn on @CNN – it's @ReliableSources time – @JohnAvlon is in the chair while I'm somewhere out here. Guests:… https://t.co/GwklZXZIc1

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) 1619362847.0

CNN's "New Day" program is also struggling mightily, despite having a brand-new host. "New Day," which has a new co-host in Brianna Keilar who replaced Alisyn Camerota, had its worst ratings of the year last week. "New Day" is averaging fewer than 500,000 viewers with Keilar at the helm, down 37% compared to the first quarter with co-hosts Camerota and John Berman, according to Nielsen Media Research. "Fox & Friends," the direct competition for "New Day," reeled in an average of 1.2 million viewers from April 26 through May 2.

Overall, Fox News was the clearcut ratings winner with an average of 2.3 million primetime viewers, surpassing MSNBC with an average of 1.6 million. "Tucker Carlson Tonight" averaged 2.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched cable news program of the week.

A new Rasmussen Reports survey found that CNN is likely to continue to struggle in the ratings department. A survey of 1,000 likely voters between May 3-4 were asked if they continue to watch the big three cable networks.

Fox News was the winner with 41% of viewers saying they continue to watch the conservative news channel. But viewers are less likely to watch left-wing cable networks CNN and MSNBC. A mere 25% of respondents said they "generally watch" CNN, and only 21% said they tune into MSNBC.

"It may be that the biggest loser in last year's election wasn't a political candidate, but CNN, which has seen its ratings drop precipitously since former President Donald Trump left office in January," Rasmussen Reports stated. "Those numbers are a sharp reversal from four years ago, when Trump's presidency proved a ratings gold mine for CNN. In a June 2017 survey, 47% of regular cable news viewers said they generally watched CNN, compared to 33% for Fox News and 16% for MSNBC."

During President Joe Biden's first 100 days in office, ratings have plummeted for CNN and MSNBC.

"On average, 1.3 million household viewers were watching MSNBC in the last week of January, shortly after Biden took office," The Hill reported. "For the week ending April 25, that number was 868,000. At CNN, those figures went from 1.2 million to 749,000."