Current Events > Newsmax scores its first ratings win over Fox News

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/media/newsmax-fox-news-ratings/

Newsmax TV has notched a ratings win over Fox News Channel for the very first time.

The win, fueled by conservative viewers who are disappointed by the election results, happened Monday evening. In the key 25- to 54-year-old demographic prized by advertisers, "Greg Kelly Reports" on Newsmax out-rated "The Story with Martha MacCallum" on Fox.

The margin was narrow Kelly averaged 229,000 viewers in the demo and MacCallum averaged 203,000 but it is still a milestone in the cable news industry.

Before the election, Newsmax was not regarded as a formidable competitor to Fox; it was mostly dismissed as one of a handful of wannabe challengers.

But President Trump's loss on November 3 changed the cable TV calculus. Viewers who were frustrated when Fox admitted the truth of Trump's loss sought other options. Trump encouraged them to try Newsmax.

Newsmax and Kelly in particular offered a safe space in which Biden was not called president-elect and Trump was not yet defeated.

Through the post-election weeks in November, as Trump's legal team suffered dozens of losses in court in its attempt to overturn the results, Kelly insisted that he believed Trump would still prevail.

His 7 p.m. program consists of long, pro-Trump, anti-media commentaries of the type typically found later in the evening on Fox. And a certain subset of viewers are rewarding him for it. Kelly's show is usually Newsmax's highest-rated show of the day.

"We're here to stay," Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said Tuesday evening. "The ratings are showing that."

Fox News is still four times higher-rated than Newsmax at any given time of day, according to Nielsen. Among viewers of all ages, Fox averaged 1.36 million viewers around the clock on Monday, while Newsmax averaged 316,000 viewers. But Fox is down from its pre-election highs while Newsmax is way up.

Take Kelly's hour: Before the election, his show barely had a heartbeat. The 7 p.m. hour had barely 10,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo and 100,000 viewers overall, according to Nielsen data.
Now the hour has nearly a million viewers on a good night, and Monday was good: 949,000 viewers.

Ruddy pointed out that Newsmax TV is also live-streamed on a variety of platforms, so there is an additional audience that is not measured by Nielsen.

In the 7 p.m. hour, Newsmax ranked third overall, behind CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront," which averaged 423,000 viewers in the demo on Monday, and MSNBC's "The ReidOut," which had 280,000.

The 25-54 demo is critical because most advertising on cable news networks is bought and sold using demographic ratings.

Newsmax seems to be cutting into Fox's demo performance at some other times of day, though it's hard to say for sure.

At 4 p.m. on Monday, for example, "The Howie Carr Show" on Newsmax averaged 101,000 in the demo, while "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on Fox averaged 148,000 in the demo.

One hour later, the gap between the two channels was much wider: "The Chris Salcedo Show" on Newsmax averaged 120,000 while "The Five" on Fox attracted 303,000.

What's the main difference? "The Five" is an intense right-wing talk show while Cavuto's 4 p.m. hour is less ideological. Fox's more opinionated shows outperform its newscasts, even when the newscasts are stacked with conservative guests and storylines.

Newsmax maxes out on talk shows, not newscasts. In the coming weeks, Ruddy said, Newsmax will continue to expand its programming schedule, including a 10 p.m. program led by Rob Schmitt, a former early morning host on Fox.

Ruddy is still brainstorming options for the 9 p.m. hour.

It must be emphasized that Fox is still far ahead of Newsmax by almost every conceivable metric.
But Fox is accustomed to being No. 1 in the 25-54 demo so losing to Newsmax, even for one hour of one day, is a serious shock.

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Not sure if hilarious or seriously worrying about the mental state of these collective viewers.

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On one hand, good because I hate Fox

On the other, bad because Newsmax is insane

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This isn't good

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Its impossible to parody reality in America now lmao

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Doom_Art posted...

On one hand, good because I hate Fox

Jagr_68 posted...

Not sure if hilarious or seriously worrying about the mental state of these collective viewers.

It is not hilarious or good in any capacity

Jesus Christ 2024 is gonna be a nightmare.

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Doom_Art posted...

On the other, bad because Newsmax is insane

Yeah... Newsmax is going a bit heavy on the redhattery, and by "a bit" I mean "holy shit".

I never even heard of Newsmax until a few weeks ago. Are they worse than OAN?

Zikten posted...

I never even heard of Newsmax until a few weeks ago. Are they worse than OAN?

Not sure but they are both another tier or two of crazy above fox news.

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I think there is a nonzero chance Newsmax gets sued out of existence
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Not like "MSDNC for the libs" or "Fox News for the Trumper" ... It's literal propoganda.

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The country is fucked unless something is done about shit like this...

So yeah, the country is fucked.

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Southernfatman posted...

The country is fucked unless something is done about shit like this...

So yeah, the country is fucked.

Well the next administration is going to predictably cowtow sheepishly to these people, while the idiotic "Im a centrist!" types say stuff like "Good a call for unity, this country is so divided surely thats a good thing!" with zero semblance of foresight or giving any thought to history as recent as 8 years ago, while being the same people who are surprised the division has happened in the first place, and undoubtedly will be the people most surprised that their idea "unity" wont actually happen.

Basically, the only path for America to actually progress in a non stupid way that isn't an endless cycle of forward and back is for Dems to stop being a bunch of pansy asses. But that will never happen because they're ultimately just a shitty HR Department in a shitty company that doesn't really have the best interests of the citizens in mind and are most interested in making sure the unsustainable status quo is maintained.

I'd like to be wrong, but that would require a miracle at this point. Its not a matter of if, its when.

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Ving_Rhames posted...

Well the next administration is going to predictably cowtow sheepishly to these people, while the idiotic "Im a centrist!" types say stuff like "Good a call for unity, this country is so divided surely thats a good thing!" with zero semblance of foresight or giving any thought to history as recent as 8 years ago, while being the same people who are surprised the division has happened in the first place, and undoubtedly will be the people most surprised that their idea "unity" wont actually happen.

Basically, the only path for America to actually progress in a non stupid way that isn't an endless cycle of forward and back is for Dems to stop being a bunch of pansy asses. But that will never happen because they're ultimately just a shitty HR Department in a shitty company that doesn't really have the best interests of the citizens in mind and are most interested in making sure the unsustainable status quo is maintained.

I'd like to be wrong, but that would require a miracle at this point. Its not a matter of if, its when.

Yeah, pretty much. Democrats are just a bunch of spineless enablers of Republicans. Democrats and Republicans are essentially just the good cop and bad cop. They're still both cops though.

What really bothers me are liberals who continue to defend that kind of behavior when they should supposedly know better. You point out how both parties take bribes from big business and how Democrats enable Republicans you get the smart ass "SAME THING BOTH SIDES" response.

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