Fox News Channel was outpaced by competitor Newsmax TV for the first time ever on Monday.
In the coveted 25- to 54-year-old demographic, “Greg Kelly Reports” on Newsmax outrated “The Story with Martha MacCallum” on Fox by a narrow margin, CNN reported.
Kelly averaged 229,000 viewers among the demographic and MacCallum averaged 203,000 viewers in the narrow but still significant milestone in the cable news industry.
“We’re here to stay,” Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said Tuesday. “The ratings are showing that.”
The ratings win comes after President Donald Trump voiced his displeasure with Fox in a tweet over the weekend.
“@FoxNews daytime is not watchable. In a class with CNN & MSDNC,” he tweeted.
“Check out @OANN, @newsmax and others that are picking up the slack. Even a boring football game, kneeling and all, is better!”
.@FoxNews daytime is not watchable. In a class with CNN & MSDNC. Check out @OANN, @newsmax and others that are picking up the slack. Even a boring football game, kneeling and all, is better!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2020
Fox News prime-time stars carried the network to its highest-rated November last month, with both Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity breaking ratings records, the Washington Examiner reported.
Laura Ingraham also held on to her title as the highest-rated female host in cable news.
“Additionally, FNC’s entire primetime lineup remains up double-digits year over year, with ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ seeing increases of 49 percent with total viewers and 85 percent with A25-54, ‘Hannity’ up 39 percent in total viewers and 89 percent with A25-54, and ‘The Ingraham Angle’ experiencing a 34 percent increase with total viewers and 80 percent with A25-54,” Fox said in a news release.
Newsmax’s viewership has jumped from 58,000 viewers on weekdays to 568,000 average viewers following the 2020 election.
“They don’t know what to do with all of us,” Newsmax television personality Grant Stinchfield said.
“We’re killing it here on Newsmax with a tactic they’ve never tried. It’s called the truth, the stone-cold truth, and once you get a taste of it, you will never tolerate being lied to again.”
Fox Corporation’s chief financial officer Steve Tomsic said that Fox has “stood the test of time.”
“I think when people think about competition, they sort of, their knee-jerk reaction is to think, ‘Well all we need is two or three talking heads to go head to head with ours.’ The business is much bigger than that,” he told CNN.
“We feel super confident about Fox News being able to compete in any environment going forward.”
