Gutfeld, Fox News Wallop Late-Night Competition During Premiere of 2 New Shows
Is Fox News finding its footing after the impactful departure of Tucker Carlson?
The answer to that question may still be up in the air, but at the very least, it appears Fox is back to dominating its competition.
If you recall, Fox suffered some wicked viewership backlash in the aftermath of Carlson’s abrupt firing, and it seemed like some of its establishment media peers may actually catch up to the news titan, at least ratings-wise.
With some of that dust now settled, it’s official: Fox’s rivals are back to a distant second place in the cable news ratings wars.
Fox sent a slice of its ratings dominance to The Western Journal, and the numbers speak for themselves.
If there were ever a chance for a network like CNN to try to pounce on Fox’s shaky footing, it would be now and it would be with brand-new programs.
CNN tried it. And failed miserably.
The leftist network debuted a pair of late-night programs this week, which is typically cause for celebration and fanfare.
The shows, “CNN NewsNight” with Abby Phillip and “Laura Coates Live,” officially premiered on Monday — but it is worth noting that they were “premieres” mostly in name only.
Both Phillip and Coates have actually been at the helm of their current time slots since August, just not with the fancy new show titles, Adweek reported.
Regardless, there’s always going to be some natural excitement when something new debuts on the airwaves.
That natural excitement, if it existed at all, did not amount to much in terms of ratings for the two CNN shows.
According to a Fox news release obtained by The Western Journal, both shows “tanked.”
“CNN NewsNight placed 17th out of the top 25 most-watched programs and Laura Coates Live placed 25th with the younger viewers,” the release said.
In a vacuum, those rankings are obviously not great. But they’re even worse when juxtaposed with the late-night success of Fox News — particularly that of Fox star Greg Gutfeld.
“At 10 PM/ET, [Fox News Channel’s] Gutfeld! notched 1,920,000 viewers and 270,000 [in the age 25 to 54 demographic,] more than quadrupling CNN Newsnight,” which only mustered 440,000 and 177,000 in those categories, the release noted.
Then, at 11 p.m. Eastern, “FOX News @ Night” with Trace Gallagher scored 1,095,000 viewers and 201,000 in the 25-54 demo, “nearly tripling Laura Coates Live,” which pulled in 387,000 and 146,000, respectively.
For CNN, it is obviously not great news that its two shiny new programs were so thoroughly blown out of the water.
Of course, CNN isn’t exactly afraid of risky ventures — some of which have failed in spectacular fashion. There is a non-zero chance that CNN expected these underwhelming numbers.
Regardless, this can’t be what the network hoped for.
For Fox? This is probably exactly what it hoped for following the tumultuous departure of its star host.
In the immediate aftermath of Carlson’s firing, Fox News shook things up and moved people around in the hopes of righting the ship.
If Monday’s numbers are anything to go by, it looks like those moves may very well pay off.
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