OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Fox News cable news ratings have mostly recovered since the network took top-rated host Tucker Carlson off the air back in April. However, longtime host Sean Hannity’s ratings have not recovered since then.
In the 9 p.m. ET primetime slot, Hannity brought in 1.95 million total viewers. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins had 527,000, and MSNBC’s Alex Wagner had 1.23 million viewers.
For comparison, Fox’s “The Five” brought in 2.61 million total viewers, Bret Baier had 1.98 million, Laura Ingraham had 1.89 million, Jesse Watters had 2.11 million, and Greg Gutfeld brought in 2.10 million total viewers.
Hannity’s show is no longer one of the top-performing programs on the network, as many other hosts and shows are now leading the pack.
“Ratings-challenged CNN remains mired in third place behind rivals Fox News and MSNBC despite the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. The cable news channel attracted an average of 619,000 viewers on Monday — with just 134,750 in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic, according to the latest Nielsen figures,” the New York Post reported.
“The ratings were a fraction of the more than 2 million viewers who tuned into Fox and the 1.7 million amassed by MSNBC, the data show. Fox also won the key demo race on Monday with 260,375 viewers, while MSNBC drew 157,750. CNN’s primetime viewership continues to be a weak spot for the network. Its top stars — Anderson Cooper, Kaitlan Collins, and Abby Phillip — manage to attract an audience less than one-fourth the size of their counterparts on Fox News — Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Greg Guttfeld,” the outlet added.
The NY Post report added: “Monday’s Nielsen figures mirrored those from the week of Nov. 6. Fox News finished in first place with 1.26 million total viewers on average as well as 156,000 in the 25-54 demographic. In primetime, Fox News averaged 1.88 million total viewers for the week — the second-highest figure in all of basic cable behind Disney-owned ESPN. In the 25-54 demographic, Fox News averaged 230,000 viewers — a 13% increase from the previous week. The boost in viewership was most likely due to the coverage of elections in Kentucky, Ohio, Mississippi, and Virginia.”
It was also revealed last week that
A new book by former CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter claims that Fox News host Jeanine Pirro’s executive producer referred to her as a “reckless maniac.”
Before it was published in the Daily Beast’s Confider newsletter, a portion of Stelter’s upcoming book, “Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy,” was leaked. It described Pirro’s relationship with Fox News management.
The book claims that Fox News management planned for Pirro’s promotion to regular co-host on “The Five” to be a demotion because her now-canceled weekend show, “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” was a major vehicle for spreading the myth that Dominion Voting Systems played a part in the 2020 election’s alleged manipulation. Fox News later reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion.
“Pirro was a problem,” two anonymous sources told Stelter, “because of her stubborn, slavish Trumpiness and because she had clashed with Fox executives who had grown tired of her histrionic shenanigans.”
It was also reported that Pirro had accused management of “censorship” for suggesting changes to the opening monologues of her weekend show, Justice with Judge Jeanine.
A previous filing in the Dominion lawsuit indicated that Pirro had become so uncontrollable that her executive producer had called her a “reckless maniac.” Stelter asserts that it was her negligence that ultimately caused Fox to cancel her show.
Since “nobody wanted to deal with her,” as one of the sources put it, Pirro was demoted to The Five, where she lost the freedom to pen her monologues and select the guests she interviewed.
Ironically enough, Pirro’s “demotion” to “The Five” resulted in her gaining a far larger viewership.
