Fox News has notched some impressive summer ratings wins — even amid the return of televised professional sports — in an achievement that Forbes detailed on Monday.
As senior media contributor Mark Joyella pointed out, since the beginning of June, not only has Fox News outpaced other cable news outlets, it ranked as the most-watched network in all of television.
“With an average prime-time audience of 3.451 million viewers, [Fox News Channel] beat CBS VIAC -2% (3.430 million), NBC (3.155 million), ABC (2.690 million) and Fox Broadcasting (1.414 million),” he wrote.
Joyella also noted that “[w]ith the coronavirus dominating news coverage since early in the year, cable news has seen big jumps in viewership, but neither CNN nor MSNBC has managed to deliver audiences as consistently big as Fox News.”
Sports can’t compete
According to Joyella, the network’s strong showing is particularly impressive during a time period when “some major sports—initially canceled or delayed due to the pandemic—returned to television.”
Among the strongest draws for Fox News this summer have been prime time hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, both attracting more viewers than a highly-anticipated July 24 opening day matchup between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals.
Joyella observed that Hannity had more people tuning in to watch his show than CBS’ most popular program, Young Sheldon, and Hannity and Carlson individually had more eyes on them than last Thursday’s NBA contest between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers, according to Forbes.
Doing the work that others won’t
While Joyella did not discuss possible reasons for why Fox News is enjoying this kind of ratings boom, the network’s strength could well lie in its willingness to air viewpoints that mainstream outlets simply will not touch.
In particular, Carlson was the target of an advertising boycott in June after he made statements critical of the Black Lives Matter movement. “This may be a lot of things, this moment we are living through, but it is definitely not about black lives, and remember that when they come for you,” Carlson said on his show, adding, “And at this rate, they will.”
The Hill reported that both Disney and T-Mobile responded by putting out public statements condemning Carlson’s remarks and announced that they would no longer be running ads on his program.
“We haven’t run ads on Tucker Carlson Tonight since early May and have cancelled all future placements,” T-Mobile declared in a tweet. “We will continue to support those who stand against racial injustice.”
Fortunately, the continued efforts of the leftist mob to silence all forms of dissent have failed to make even a dent in the success of Fox News and its outspoken opinion hosts.
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