The only thing speedier than Fox New flushing its ratings down the political toilet has been the meteoric rise of Newsmax TV, as once fiercely-loyal Foxers have continued to run away from the network they once trusted; straight into the welcoming arms of Newsmax TV.

Nothing better illustrates the above than what happened on Monday night in the 7:00 p.m. EDT time slot. And what happened was history-making for Newsmax TV, as well.

First, a bit of recent background.

As my RedState colleague, Bonchie reported — less a month ago — one of Newsmax TV’s shows hit 1 million viewers for the first time in the fledgling network’s history; gleefully trumpeted by CNN CEO Jeff Zucker’s sniveling little Mini-Me.

Another record night for @Newsmax: For the first time, one of its shows topped the 1 million viewer mark, according to Nielsen TV ratings. “Greg Kelly Reports” averaged 1.06 million viewers at 7pm last night. Fox News averaged 2.06 million at the same hour.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 13, 2020

So, yeah, “Greg Kelly Reports” averaged 1.06 million viewers in the 7:00 p.m. slot, roughly half of Fox’s 7:00 average for the same hour, which is anchored by “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” but… fast-forward to Tuesday night, when Kelly scored a ratings-win over MacCallum for the first time in history — doubling the ratings of “Greg Kelly Reports” in less than thirty days. That is remarkable, regardless of how one might try to spin it.

HISTORY MADE: Newsmax Host Greg Kelly Scores Ratings Win Over FOX News Host Martha MacCallum for First Time @Newsmax @gregkellyusa via @gatewaypundit https://t.co/5lDO6y5ZQF

— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) December 9, 2020

As no doubt euphorically reported by The Most Trusted Name in News™ [sarc] Kelly’s ratings win was “fueled by conservative viewers in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic who are disappointed by the election results.”

No, CNN, Kelly’s ratings win was fueled by conservatives who are pissed off at Fox News for going all CNN on them. If they wanted to watch blatantly biased “journalism,” all they would’ve had to do was switch to your clown car of cable “news.”

Let’s think about CNN and the hilarious irony for a minute.

Here we have The Most Trusted Name in News™ gloating over the precipitous decline in ratings of Fox News. Given that the likes of Fredo Cuomo, Donnie Lemon, that idiot, Ana Navarro, & Co. — along with Harvey Weinstein Mini-Me look-alike Jeffrey Zucker, hate Fox News almost as much as they hate the Devil’s spawn — AKA: Donald Trump — that’s all they see, here. The freefall of Fox News only. The network that consistently beats CNN like a cheap set of drums, and has done so for years.

But what the geniuses at CNN fail to see is that the reason Fox News ratings are falling as fast as Michael Moore skydiving before he opens his parachute(s), is precisely the reason CNN has been a permanent cellar dweller, along with PMSBC, as compared to Fox News:

Throwing Donald Trump under the bus at every contrived opportunity does not play well with millions of “Make America Great” Americans; Americans who fear for their country as the insidiousness of “progressivism” does its damnedest to destroy it as we know it.

Anyway, “the margin was narrow — Kelly averaged 229,000 viewers in the demo and MacCallum averaged 203,000 — CNN reported, “but it is still a milestone in the cable-news industry.” See what I mean. Translation: “Na na na na na na, Fox News!”

Rather than write the below, I decided to include how CNN spun the hell out of reported it.

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.

Incidentally, for the nitpickers, I’m aware that 7:00 p.m. is not “prime time,” but Martha MacCallum is not only one of a handful of “prime time players” at Fox; she co-anchors election news and various breaking stories with “Special Report” host Brett Baier, as well.

Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said on Tuesday evening that his news network’s meteoric rise hasn’t been an anomaly: “We’re here to stay. The ratings are showing that.”

And Fox News?

As CNN reported, Fox Corp. chief financial officer Steve Tomsic addressed the competition during a conference call on Tuesday, not only mentioning Newsmax TV by name, but One America News, as well.

“I think when people think about competition, they sort of, their knee-jerk reaction is to think, ‘well all we need is two or three talking heads to go head to head with ours. [But 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,” Tomsic added, “we feel super confident about Fox News being able to compete in any environment going forward.”

Maybe so, maybe not — but a couple of things are certain.

The cable news industry divided itself into two distinct camps, the moment Donald and Melania Trump rode down the escalator in Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, to announce his candidacy for the presidency: Pro-Trump or Anti-Trump. Virtually nothing in between. Assuming Trump’s presidency ends on January 20, 2021, the same cable news networks will be forced to recalibrate — bigly.

This is not to suggest that Trump will no longer make news — of course, he will, one way or the other. But the day-in and day-out reporting of the day’s political news in a “Trumpless environment” will change. The question is, where will that leave Fox News, who rode Trump to the top; then cut him loose at the end?