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The CEO of the network announced on Monday that a longtime Fox News fixture had passed away after a “long illness.”
Suzanne Scott noted in a memo that Barry-John “Baz” Davies, a producer working with the network’s London bureau, had passed away.
“We have some sad news to share this afternoon,” Scott wrote. “Barry-John ‘Baz’ Davies, who served as a producer in our London bureau, passed away yesterday after a long illness. He was just 46 years old. He was a beloved part of our team in London and was highly regarded by our colleagues there as well as by the many anchors and correspondents he worked with during his time at FOX.”
Davies started as an editor with Fox News in 2010, later being elevated to producer.
“Throughout his tenure, he covered some of the most consequential foreign news of the last two decades, including the war in Ukraine, several G20 and G7 summits, Brexit, and the terrorist attacks in France and Belgium,” Scott continued. “He also took multiple trips to Iraq, where he covered the ISIS uprising in Mosul, and to Seoul to report on the tensions between North and South Korea.”
Davies is survived by his wife, Sarah, and his sons, Rex, 5, and Ned, 3, the network added.
Without a doubt, 2023 was a challenging year for the cable news industry — which ended the turbulent year with fewer viewers as alternative news sources gained traction and cord-cutting continued to limit linear reach into American households.
For the eighth year in a row, Fox News remained the most popular cable news network as the year ended. The network’s six news programs dominated the cable news industry, with The Five making history as the first non-prime-time program to top the ratings in the crucial 25–54 age group and overall viewers.
It was Fox’s 22nd consecutive year at the top of cable news in terms of total viewers and the demo in terms of total day and prime-time viewers in 2023, Mediaite noted.
MSNBC maintained its position as the second most-watched cable network, behind Fox, thanks to the success of prime-time hosts like Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow, and the network was the only one to experience year-over-year growth in total viewers. Thanks to Trump’s heavy news cycles and the former president’s ongoing legal dramas, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and early evening hosts Nicolle Wallace and Ari Melber continue to be major ratings draws for the network.
Beloved Fox News Channel producer Barry-John ‘Baz’ Davies dead at 46 https://t.co/xBK6NgKh5k
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 13, 2024
Despite a leadership change this year, CNN’s ratings have not recovered, and the network had its worst viewership total since 2014, including a record low in the demo, at the end of the year. Still, for the tenth year running overall and for the fourth year running during prime time, CNN scored better ratings than MSNBC in the demo; this continued MSNBC’s lengthy losing streak with demo viewers.
As the cable industry continues to decline, S&P Global Market Intelligence estimates that just 70 million American households have access to Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC as of today, down from 90 million in 2016.
Earlier this year, Fox was in the news for settling a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for an astounding $787 million. Shortly after, the network fired Tucker Carlson, the top-rated cable news host. Carlson moved his act to Elon Musk’s X, where he openly supports far-right conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones. Jesse Watters replaced Carlson at 8 o’clock in July when Fox relaunched its prime-time lineup.
The network’s total viewers fell 18% from 1.49 million to 1.2 million, marking its lowest total viewership since 2015, despite Fox’s continued dominance in the industry. Total day viewers for MSNBC increased to 784,000 from 733,000 in the previous year. Similarly, CNN saw a decline of 15% from 568,000 average viewers in 2022 to 482,000 total day viewers in 2019.
