The rapid decline of Fox News will be studied by experts in the industry for decades. Imagine comfortably holding the title of the number one cable news network with no competition in sight for over two decades, only to have the network take a plunge after one singular event — in this case, a presidential election.
That’s exactly what’s happening right now to the traditionally right-leaning network, as ratings fall and decades-old loyal viewers vow to never return to the familiar faces at Fox News ever again.
The downfall started on the night of the November 3 election, as the network made an early call in the state of Arizona that many Trump supporters believe was akin to election interference. Several of Fox News’ on-air personalities would also contribute to the network’s decline.
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What did these ticked-off Fox News viewers do? They vowed to switch their loyalties to a little-known, up-and-coming network called Newsmax TV. At first, it didn’t seem as if Newsmax TV or anyone else out there was anywhere near an immediate threat to the cable news giant, but that all rapidly changed over the past few weeks.
In a massive, organic social media campaign in which Trump supporters — by the thousands (or more) — told all of their contacts on Twitter to switch to Newsmax, the rookie network received a huge bump. It was soon blasted into the ratings stratosphere when President Trump began retweeting clips from the network and telling his tens of millions of supporters that he’s a huge fan.
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This week is when all of the Newsmax fanfare and popularity came to a head, as the network managed to actually beat Fox News in a primetime demographic — something that was difficult for even the most established news networks, like CNN and MSNBC.
NEW: Greg Kelly Reports (Newsmax) beats The Story with Martha MacCallum (Fox News) in the 25-54 age demographic.
— David Chapman (@davidchapman141) December 9, 2020
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A popular Newsmax show called “Greg Kelly Reports” managed to beat Fox News’ “The Story with Martha McCallum” in the highly-coveted 25- to 54-year-old audience demographic on Monday night. Kelly’s show managed to garner 229,000 viewers in that time slot, compared to McCallum’s 203,000.
While the margin is massive, it’s by far a decisive and alarming victory for Fox News, who probably never thought any other network — especially a conservative one — would have the ability to take them on and actually notch a victory in the ratings.
Another key data point is the fact that Newsmax TV is watched by an untold number of viewers through all the various streaming apps and boxes — something that Nielsen ratings people do not track. Kelly’s numbers were likely even higher, given the addition of that untrackable metric.
Newsmax’s victory over Fox News was so notable that CNN even covered the story this week, reporting that the ratings victory was a “milestone.”
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Only time will tell whether or not Newsmax can emerge as the viewers’ top choice for conservative cable news, but all signs point to a strong possibility that within a few years, that very well could happen.
