OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Brian Stelter, host of CNN’s little-watched “Reliable Sources” program, may be on the line as the show has once again reached new viewership lows and the network’s new bosses have already begun to make changes.
This past week, Stelter’s Sunday program had its lowest ratings since September 2019 when just 580,000 people tuned in to watch.
“Reliable Sources also struggled in the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54, averaging only 73,000 viewers from the critical category. Stelter’s program shed 13% of the total audience who tuned into the show that precedes it, Fareed Zakaria GPS, and lost 25% of Zakaria’s viewers among the demo. It was Stelter’s smallest audience since Sept. 15, 2019,” Fox News reported.
“Stelter’s media affairs program turned a blind eye to the jarring lack of coverage the press gave to the aborted assassination attempt of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN were all criticized by conservatives for downplaying or ignoring the alarming incident, but Stelter paid the story no heed,” the report added.
Partisan CNN hosts Brian Stelter and Jim Acosta, along with other biased hosts, could be gone as the network undergoes changes.
Meanwhile, Fox News programs are dominating the cable news industry and have been for some time, and no host more so than Tucker Carlson, who is continuing to smash records.
Newly released data found that “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was the most-watched cable news show on Friday night.
AdWeek found that Carlson’s 8 p.m. show had 3.13 million total viewers and 485,000 views in the advertiser-coveted demo of 25-54 demographic.
In the same time slot, CNN’s Anderson Cooper pulled in 686,000 total viewers and just 131,000 in the 25-54 demo.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes didn’t do much better as his show garnered just 1.43 million total viewers and 152,000 in the 25-54 demo.
Carlson’s show has been dominating for a very long time. Deadline published the viewership results for cable news shows and Carlson, as well as Fox News, smashed all of the competition.
Television viewership data found that Carlson’s show is the number one most-watched show among Democrats in the key demographic of 25-54 year-olds.
“The data showed that Carlson pulled in 101,000 viewers who self-identified as Democrats in the 25-54 demographic. MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” and Fox’s “The Five” were tied for second place, each attracting 88,000 viewers in the key demo who self-identified as Democrats. The next two spots are occupied by Sean Hannity, who took in 81,000 young Democrat viewers, and Greg Gutfeld, who pulled 73,000,” the report found.
Deadline detailed how in May, Fox News dominated all cable news competition.
Another top network host, Jesse Watters, is blowing up ratings on two programs. New data shows that the hit show “The Five” was the number one show last week and the third overall rated program in all of cable news in May.
Watters not only co-hosts “The Five,” but he also leads his own program, “Jesse Watters Primetime.” His show came in third place as the most-watched program on Fox News, beating out Sean Hannity, Bret Baier, and Laura Ingraham.
“The Five was the most-watched show of the week, both in total viewers (3.19 million) and among adults 25-54 (469,000). Tucker Carlson Tonight came in second in average total viewers (2.97 million), followed by Jesse Watters Primetime at No. 3 (2.53 million viewers at 9 p.m.), Hannity at No. 4 (2.46 million at 7 p.m.), and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.285 million viewers at 6 p.m.) rounding out the five-most-watched,” the report stated.
Below are the 10 most-watched cable news shows from May:
–Fox News | 5 p.m. /The Five: 3,279,000 / 25 telecasts
–Fox News | 8 p.m. / Tucker Carlson Tonight: 3,233,000 / 22 telecasts
–Fox News | 9 p.m./ Hannity: 2,720,000 / 21 telecasts
–Fox News | 7 p.m./ Jesse Watters Primetime: 2,646,000 / 17 telecasts
–Fox News | 6 p.m. / Special Report with Bret Baier: 2,475,000 / 25 telecasts
–Fox News | 10 p.m./The Ingraham Angle: 2,256,000 / 23 telecasts
–Fox News | 11 p.m./Gutfeld! : 2,001,000 / 23 telecasts
–MSNBC | 9 p.m./The Rachel Maddow Show: 1,950,000 / 9 telecasts
–Fox News | 12 p.m. / Outnumbered: 1,774,000 / 26 telecasts
–Fox News | 9-10 a.m./10-11 a.m./America’s Newsroom: 1,709,000 / 50 telecasts
Fox News dominated cable news by such a large margin that the conservative network had more viewership in a key demo than CNN and MSNBC combined.
“Fox News dominated CNN and MSNBC in the month of May, beating their combined viewers in both the key 25-54 age demographic and in terms of total viewers –for the 10th straight month,” Mediaite reported.
