We’ve been reporting how Fox News seems to have abandoned “fair and balanced” and gone the way of mainstream news, all in on liberal talking points. It’s been ongoing for awhile, but got really bad and obvious around the election and after.
While Fox still ended the year leading the other networks for this past year, the trouble spots were obvious and their ratings took a hammering last week where they finished third behind MSNBC and CNN, the first time that’s happened in 20 years, since the Clinton administration.
TV RATINGS: Tuesday Jan. 12, MSNBC and CNN took the top spots in total viewers with @Maddow at #1 followed by @ChrisCuomo, @andersoncooper, @wolfblitzer, @donlemon & @TuckerCarlson. https://t.co/c0qdiIGieQ pic.twitter.com/VWQCjynaCX
— TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) January 13, 2021
Neil Cavuto, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum were particularly in the dumper.
One of their former stars, Eric Bolling, took particular note.
🚨FoxNews (Again)-
LAST PLACE in all ratings categories:
Daytime:
25-54 demo- last
Total audience- lastPrimetime:
25-54 demo- last
Total audience- lasthttps://t.co/rW2VjkenzSRumors of management changes soon.
— 🇺🇸ERIC BOLLING🇺🇸 (@ericbolling) January 13, 2021
Bottom line? They are in need of a reevaluation of themselves. But you can see their opinion hosts such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are still strong and holding them up, which tells you the problem is in becoming like other news media. Why would Fox viewers want to hear regurgitated CNN news?
They may be trying that now with a revamp of their news line-up that starts Jan. 18, as we reported. They moved anchor Martha MacCallum out of the 7 p.m. hour and into the 3 p.m. midday slot, replaced her early primetime news broadcast with another opinion show and then combined Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer together to co-anchor America’s Newsroom.
But this comes, according to the Daily Beast citing Fox insiders, because viewers fled since Fox’s early election call for Joe Biden, declaring him winning Arizona when many Fox viewers abandoned them and left for Newsmax or other places like One America News.
“The Fox is on the run,” Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy gloated in a statement following Fox’s announcement. “The rise of Newsmax TV has caused a major shake-up at Fox News with news today that early evening host Martha MacCallum has been demoted to early afternoons.” [….]
As a result, network brass “clearly don’t think [MacCallum] is strong enough to be part of the prestigious primetime lineup,” said a current staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely about their current employer. “Before the election, she was always number one. Then we called Arizona for Biden and everything changed. Bottom feeders like Newsmax and OAN scrambled to accrue our disenfranchised viewers.”
According to the Daily Beast, one of their sources said, “This is the Murdochs, the world changed for Fox the day they called Arizona and the question that remains is will the audience ever forgive the news people for doing it.”
While you always have to wonder about “sources” reports from liberal media, this certainly tailors with what we have been hearing and seeing from viewers.
Fox seems to be making a choice now to try to win its viewers back. But it may be too late.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member