Fox News Swirling Down The Toilet by Larry C Johnson

In order to grasp the magnitude of Fox News’ betrayal of its conservative base, I decided to look back at their ratings in August of 2020 and compare the results with its current viewership as of November 23, 2020. The numbers are devastating and telling. Fox has lost about 50% of its audience. You Trump loyalists are making them pay where it hurts–the pocketbook.

Let me break it down by show:

• Neil Cavuto drew 2.192 million viewers in August. By November he was attracting only 1.3 million.
• The Five also suffered a big loss, going from 3.772 million in August to 2.883 million in November–minus 889,000 viewers.
• Bret Baier suffered a significant decline of 1,139,000 –3.256 million in August to 2.117 million in November.
• Martha MacCallum fared worse—she shed 50% of her audience, collapsing from 3.201 million to 1.613 million.
• Tucker Carlson also has taken a big hit–dropping from 5.719 million in August to 3.444 million in November. That is a drop of 2.275 million.
• Sean Hannity’s shining star is flaming out. His viewership plummeted from 6.838 million to 2.839 million. That means almost 4 million people fled his show.
• And Laura Ingraham bled out–she dropped from 4.82 million to 2.114. She lost 2.706 viewers.

These are consequential numbers. Fox has committed media suicide.

While it is true that CNN and MSNBC ratings have increased, the total viewership for the top three Cable news networks have remained basically the same with some key exceptions. The most watched hour in August 2020 was 9pm. With Hannity in the lead, the three combined drew 10.794 million viewers. In November, that number fell to 8.556 million. CNN and MSNBC are basically treading water. Fox is drowning.

Let’s put this into context. Conservative talk radio dwarfs the audience of the cable news networks by several millions. Rush Limbaugh, for example, attracts at least 20 million listeners each day. If you add up all of the conservative talk radio shows, their audience exceeds the cable news networks by at least a factor of five. The point is this–pay no attention to the yammering on the mainsteam cable news shows. It is pure propaganda. Listen to conservative talk radio and support OAN, News Max and the Blaze. You are not alone.

Here are the total Viewer Ratings for August 24, 2020

FNC
Cavuto:
2.192
Five:
3.772
Baier:
3.256
MacCallum:
3.201
Carlson:
5.719
Hannity:
6.838
Dmcy2020:
7.063
Ingraham:
4.82

And here are the number of Total Viewers for November 23, 2020

FNC
Cavuto:
1.305
Five:
2.883
Baier:
2.117
MacCallum:
1.613
Carlson:
3.444
HntySpcl:
2.839
Ingraham:
2.114
Bream:
1.147

Comments

[walrus]

I am not in the lease surprised. Rupert did not make a lot of money by being stupid. He supports left wing politicians when it suits him. For example he made Tony Blair into Britain’s Prime Minister.

Take it from me that the Fox decision is a cold hearted icy logic business choice that Rupert believes is in his best interests.

Don’t be sentimental. Rupert is always on the side of the winner. His choice tells you what is coming. There isn’t going to be a”conservative base” as a potentially valuable audience once Biden is President.

That means no one will admit to being a conservative, no conservative will have any money or....

[Diana L Croissant]

Lately I'd rather watch old Andy Griffith shows than any current news show. Some of us are living in fear, noto of the virus but of what our country has become

I retired earlier than I had to from teaching in the public schools because of what our public schools had become.

It makes me sad sad and fearful for my grandchildren.

[LondonBob]

The Murdoch children are very left wing, that said Rupert was always a neocon rather than a conservative anyway.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/murdoch-is-daddy-warbucks-to-the-neocons/

[JerseyJeffersonian]

Larry,
Thank you for this post.
Sorry to send this OT comment and link, but there was no discernably better place to drop it.

CNBC: 'Outrageous' and 'repugnant': Australia demands apology from China over doctored tweet.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/30/australia-prime-minister-demands-apology-from-beijing-over-repugnant-tweet-say.html

The Petulant Panda is throwing its weight around anent Australia. This story, and Australia's handling of it, has provoked some discussion elsewhere at SST, but this is a new wrinkle that is notable in two ways: 1) China's apparently officially-supported propaganda assault under the pressure of questions surrounding its role in the Conavirus' origin and worldwide spread; 2) Twitter's lassitude in taking down, or at minimum, flagging this tweet, when if it originated from "non- progressive" sources here in the USA would likely have received this sort of attention. This certainly jumped out at me, at least.

Feel free to not post if this comment is disruptive to this thread.

Thanks, JJ

[BillWade]

I will henceforth refer to the MSM as the regime media or RM.

We reluctantly turned off Tucker last week. I felt bad about it as after watching him for a few years my wife slowly left behind her liberal north eastern views and came around to the right side of things. I'll thank him for that.

Free State of Florida

[Fred]

walrus,

That's correct. The whole point of the lockdowns is to destroy financial independence of Americans. There won't be a conservative base, they will be wards of the state who do what they are told in a corporatocracy.

[Christian J. Chuba]

I'll say this in FOX's defense but then affirm your premise.

1. At least they have diverse opinions as sharply illustrated in the election coverage and DJT, on CNN they are Stalinists but it looks like the second approach makes for better programming. People want to watch networks that reflect their own views and FOX is no longer providing that.

2. This time, I have really, really stopped watching FOX. I just cannot take their monolithic drumbeat on Iran. No diversity there. The coverage on Iran looks managed to me.

[NancyK]

Only one of Murdoch's sons veer left and he is not involved with Fox News. Newsmax has increased viewing because they are saying what the listeners want to hear. I don't have cable so I don't listen to any of the news shows however my mother listens to all of them and is intrigued by the different spin on each show.

[JerseyJeffersonian]

In other, more positive news, Conservative Treehouse has successfully made the move from Wordpress servers - they had been forced to move on the double quick due to some purported violations of terms - and are up and running again. Kudos to the techies who made it so, and two days ahead of deadline.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com

Notably, CTH elected to include not only their posts and ancillary data, but also the comments, since apparently they believe that Deplorables matter. Go figure.

A contrast to the "loyalty" to the base shown by Fox, no?

[TV]

If Rupert is betting on cutting away a big chunk of CNN/MSNBC viewers, not a good bet.
Those viewers have spent so many years sneering at "Faux News" why would they suddenly desert their very reliable far left hate America channels for an upstart, possibly a "faux" pretender?

[Deap]

WSJ is not far behind - they have a string of thoroughly irresponsible writers who reek bias and are not labeled as opinion writers.

[Deap]

I suspect the new Murdoch sons ownership wants to destroy the FOX brand entirely, ditch it and never see FOX News ever mentioned again. Which may be a good thing. Democrats will need to construct a new bête noir.

Fox News is a buzzword slur to shut down anyone who disagrees with progressive lies out here in California -- oh, you just get your information from Faux News - end of discussion.

Funny thing is I never watched Fox News, but the label is immediately attached to any uttered conservative viewpoint out here. More Democrat mind control.

[Deap]

What gets flushed in this homemade video test gets crazier and crazier, but I still don't see this brand is up to the task of flushing what Fox News has become:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9my850aAjRE

Trigger warning- kind of gross, but not graphic. But a heck of good marketing pitch for this brand- Icera. Just installed in a bathroom remodel.

Potty humor? I guess we are now reduced to that, as the Great Election Steal Lockdown forces us into new net exploration adventures.

[elaine]

I watch all of them if following a story but lately have paid
more attention to OANN (One America News Network).

[CSP]

Larry -

I don't understand the logic in comparing August numbers with November numbers for what should be obvious reasons. The better comparison would be Nov. 2020 to Nov. 2019. Those numbers will show a different story for Fox.

[different clue]

Walrus,

I have only briefly read this article so far, but my understanding is that while Fox News viewer numbers are going down, that Rush Limbaugh's listener numbers are still staying right up where they were, which was always higher than Fox News. And there are other Conservative Radio Talk Show personalities as well, with their own loyal audiences.

So the Conservative Base is bigger than the Fox News audience and it will remain bigger and will still be reachable and mobilizable, only now over the radio more than before.

Have I misunderstood this aspect of the point of Larry Johnson's article?