The number one channel in cable news is having a rough summer, not as bad as Bernie Sanders, but a rough summer nonetheless.
Just recently Fox decided not to renew the contract for mid-day anchor Gretchen Carlson, and she ended up filing a law suite against the CEO, Roger Ailes.
The public feud intensified when Megyn Kelly also claimed she had some unwanted contact by Ailes about 10 years ago. It was also coincidental that Megyn brought it up now, in a contract year.
It got ugly when Bill O’Reilly and about 50 other top personalities and journalists said they would leave if Ailes was fired.
Technically, Ailes wasn’t fired. Roger stepped down, got paid $40 million and is still and advisor to Rupert Murdoch, the owner and now acting CEO.
Now the ratings are out for the for the DNC and Fox News is dead last and CNN is out in front.
It is understandable that the numbers for Fox News which heavily favors the right to CNN which heavily favors the left. CNN doesn’t favor as much as MSNBC, but it still has a pro-Hillary or pro-democrat spin.
We can compare Fox to previous election cycles though.
Looking at total viewers aged 25+, Fox News was down over 15% from their own numbers in 2008. The numbers are slightly up from 2012 ratings through the first two days of the convention.
What is very interesting is that there are roughly three million more people watching this year than 2012 overall. The total numbers are down though from Obama’s first election in 2008.
CNN is the big winner here. They have doubled the total viewers of Fox and attracted about 2.1 million more viewers than 2012.
People are tuning in to the DNC, partly to see what would happen with the Bernie walkout on Monday, but also because this is a very important and contested election.
The dip in Fox is troubling, but if Hillary wins this election, it won’t matter who is the leader of Fox, it will do very well.
Do you think this is the beginning of the end for Fox’s dominance or just a dip during the Democratic National Convention? Let us know in the comments below.
