OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
MSNBC anchor Kendis Gibson is leaving the left-leaning network because he no longer wants to be part of a “hyper-partisan” news environment 24/7.
Gibson told Variety that he is jumping to a new role at CBS’ Miami station, WFOR, a local news station in Florida.
“I wanted to get away from working in the hyper-partisan 24/7 political news space,” Gibson said. “This is a good chance to anchor a newscast that covers the full gamut of the news cycle which I love, including world news, entertainment news, human interest stories, and stories important to local communities — and in an awesome city with a big commitment to local news from the top down.”
“The move shows ViacomCBS bringing in new local staffers under Wendy McMahon, co-president of the company’s news and stations unit, and Gibson says he welcomed the chance to take on a wider range of reporting than he was able to do at MSNBC, where he was anchoring early mornings on weekends,” Variety reported.
Gibson joined MSNBC as a weekend anchor in 2019, part of a bid by the NBCUniversal-owned cable-news outlet to feature more live programming on weekends.
This comes as MSNBC has been struggling in cable news ratings and losing heavily to Fox News.
Fox News aired 72 of the 100 most-watched cable news telecasts last week.
“Fox News Channel dominated basic cable from July 11-17, finishing with the largest average audience for the 28th consecutive week,” Fox News reported.
“Fox News averaged 1.4 million viewers last week, while no other basic cable channel surpassed the one-million viewer mark. Fox News also came out on top during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m., averaging 2.2 million viewers compared to 1.3 million for second-place MSNBC,” the report added. “It was the 74th straight week that Fox News outdrew CNN and MSNBC among both total and primetime viewers.”
The hit show “The Five,” where Watters is a co-host, once again led all cable news shows in total viewers last week and it wasn’t even close.
“The Five” was the most-watched show on cable news, averaging 3.14 million viewers.
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” was the second most-watched show last week with the week 3.12 million total viewers.
The other show Watters hosts, “Watters Primetime” took third place in average total viewers with 2.64 million.
Earlier this month, Fox News had 84 of the top 100 cable news shows between July 4 and 10 and averaged 1.3 million viewers.
For comparison, MSNBC finished second with 666,000 daily average viewers in that same time frame.
Fox News beat all of cable news among the key demographic of adults aged 25-54, averaging 198,000 total demo viewers and 288,000 during primetime.
According to Fox News:
“The Five” averaged 3.2 million viewers to finish as the most-watched cable news offering, as Fox News finished with 84 of the top 100 cable news telecasts for the week.
“Tucker Carlson Tonight,” “Jesse Watters Primetime,” “Special Report with Bret Baier” and “The Ingraham Angle” joined “The Five” among the five most-popular shows.
“Tucker” averaged 505,000 viewers among the advertiser-coveted demographic to win the critical ratings category.
“FOX & Friends” continued its dominant streak, averaging 1.2 million viewers to top morning show competition on CNN and MSNBC for the 68th straight week.
CNN’s “New Day” averaged a dismal 385,000 viewers and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” settled for and average audience of 832,000.
Fox News crushes basic cable competition, outdraws CNN and MSNBC in ratings for 73rd straight week https://t.co/3lvG7hFot5
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 12, 2022
