Add another nail in the coffin to an already dying cable TV news industry.
The May ratings are out, and they aren’t good for FOX and CNN.
Mediaite highlighted the ratings for FOX in the first full month since they canned Tucker Carlson.
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Their ratings dropped 37% compared to a year ago. They nabbed just 1.4 million viewers in the primetime slot.
Clearly, not a smart move to axe the guy.
As for CNN? The thought was that its town hall with Former President Donald Trump would give the network a big boost.
The network saw its ratings — compared to last year — sink 25%, getting just under 500,000 viewers on average for prime time.
The winner of all this? Like it or not, it’s actually MSNBC. They saw a 14% gain from last year, with a clean million people watching them in prime time in May.
MSNBC now comfortably takes their place as the network winning the silver medal, while CNN battles for the bronze with Newsmax, which beat CNN by 20,000 prime time viewers for the first time on a Friday night primetime show.
CNN is still ahead generally by about 20,000, but expect those numbers to soon reverse.
The reason? Aside from the dying nature of linear television, CNN didn’t appear to make a smart move by pivoting to the middle. They were previously thought of as the progressive network, along with MSNBC.
Their gamble for Collins to host Trump, angering many on the activist left, didn’t appear to have paid off in the long run.
The moral? Stick with what you know.
Fox leans right. MSNBC is unapologetically left.
And lastly, MSNBC is the one outlet that has staying power with its talent. Tucker Carlson on FOX? Out. Don Lemon at CNN? Also out.
Rachel Maddow is still at the network, albeit just once a week. But all it takes is that once a week show for her clips to be blasted on YouTube and other social media sites, garnering more eyeballs and thus viewers back to MSNBC.
She is keeping the network relevant, while Chris Hayes, a consistent presence on station, has been seeing an increase in his numbers.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
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