It's been an incredibly negative three months on the news with the coronavirus pandemic and angry protests against police after the killing of George Floyd, but Deadline reports it's a good time for cable news:
Tucker Carlson Tonight drew a record 4.331 million viewers in the second quarter and 791,000 in the 25-54 demo, making it the number one program in all of cable news among both total viewers and demo for the first time, according to the network and Nielsen Media Research. This comes as Fox News Channel wrapped the second quarter of 2020 with the largest audience in network history in both total day and primetime, Nielsen says.
FNC’s primetime lineup of Tucker Carlson Tonight and Hannity made cable news history with both programs breaking the all-time record set by Hannity in 1Q’20 for the highest-rated quarter for any cable news program. Both programs were the first cable news telecasts to deliver over 4 million total viewers for an entire quarter and bested that number again in the second consecutive quarter.
The talk about Tucker's success is so giddy it's spurring Tucker Carlson for President chatter for 2024....as if we elect TV hosts as a matter of course.
This was terrible news for the leftists trying to yank advertisers for Tucker's show...although they have the habit of just moving their commercials to other hours on Fox News. Deadline noted the "recent pullouts by some key advertisers, including Disney, T-Mobile and Papa Johns, over the host’s polarizing point of view on the Black Lives Matter movement."
Laura Ingraham can celebrate that The Ingraham Angle earned the highest ratings in network history in the 10 PM/ET timeslot. Meanwhile, it may getting a little boring to report, but Fox News was the most-watched network across both total day and primetime among all of basic cable, marking 16 consecutive quarters in the top spot in total daytime viewers.
Fox was not alone in ratings growth. According to an article posted at Mediaite, "CNN, bolstered by Chris Cuomo’s hotly debated primetime show, had the most-watched quarter in its 40-year history." That "hotly debated" term means "shamelessly promoting his controversial brother" antics.
Each primetime show earned its best quarterly ratings ever. Cuomo Prime Time beat The Rachel Maddow Show in the demo during June, making it the most popular show on CNN.
Maddow also “earned impressive overall ratings for the quarter,” Mediaite insisted. “Cuomo may have beaten Maddow in the demo, but the MSNBC host trounced her CNN rival in total viewers.”
“MSNBC drew its highest overall ratings ever in total day, with 1.2 million, and primetime, with 1.99 million,” the staff reported. “In the total day demo, MSNBC drew 193,000, while in primetime the network drew 315,000.”
But they had to acknowledge the top rankings of shows “are a Fox-heavy affair,” they noted. “In total viewers, the top five shows on cable news for the quarter were: Tucker Carlson Tonight, Hannity, The Five, Special Report with Bret Baier and The Ingraham Angle.
The Rachel Maddow Show placed sixth, making her program the top-rated non-Fox show on cable news. Fox News aired 12 of the top 15 cable news programs.
This would explain why the other two networks suggest Fox viewers are dangerously propagandized robots. They're jealous.
