Compared to previous months, May was as positively calm and inviting as can be for the world of cable news, without any major personalities getting shown the door. Indeed, it was the first full month of programming for Fox News without its former viewership king Tucker Carlson, who notably parted ways with the network in April for reasons that still aren’t 100% confirmed, even if the rumor mill worked overtime on generating reasons. And to be expected, the numbers were markedly down across the board for the entire month, even if it wasn’t all bad news.
In seemingly every base of measurement for the month, Fox News’ numbers trailed relatively far behind the network’s stats from a year previous, and were also clearly lower than they were during the final months of Tucker Carlson’s hosting run. For instance, the channel’s average primetime viewership throughout May was 1.42 million pairs of eyeballs, which is a 37% decline from where that average was for May 2022 (via Deadline). While not a full split-in-half situation, losing more than a third of an audience based on any one factor is not a great sign, even if it’s an insightful one.
When it comes to the all-important age demographic of 25-54-year-olds that’s more specifically fitting for cable news crowds, Fox News brought in an average of 135,000 viewers. That dropoff is far steeper, comparatively, as it’s 62% lower than what that demo average was the year prior. There’s a pattern here.
For total day stats, Fox News enjoyed its most minimal dropoff, averaging 1.09 million viewers across the full slate. That’s a 25% dip from previous numbers, though the percentage gets higher again when it comes to the 25-54 demo average for total day measurements. Fox News pulled in 126,000 on average, which is a 45% decrease.
Fox News Exec Reveals One Way Tucker Carlson's Exit Is Helping The Network Financially
It was immediately obvious that there were going to be viewership issues, with ratings numbers immediately falling in the wake of Tucker Carlson’s exit. Since that point, Fox News replaced its crown jewel Tucker Carlson Tonight with Fox News Tonight, which has employed a revolving door of temp hosts, from Brian Kilmeade to Kayleigh McEnany to Lawrence Jones and beyond.
For all the dourness that comes with lower numbers, Fox News isn’t exactly getting pummeled by the competition or anything. In fact, all of the numbers noted above still managed to put the network on top of rivals MSNBC and CNN. The latter was also part of the de-anchoring mess in April when the allegedly problematic Don Lemon was fired, though he was part of the morning lineup and had no direct impact on primetime numbers.
While not the most flauntable victory, Fox News can still tout itself as the most-watched cable news provider out there. That said, MSNBC was the only one of the three to enjoy positive gains in all areas, and is closing the gap in that respect, even if there’s still a ways to go. MSNBC is averaging 1.16 million in primetime (up 14%), with 120,000 in the 25-54 demo (up 14%), and is averaging 736K viewers in total-day stats (up 16%), with 85,000 of that in the desired age bracket (up 21%).
CNN, meanwhile, is averaging 494,000 in primetime (down 25%) with 113K in the age demo (down 25%). The drop was only slightly lower, percentage-wise, for total day averages: 426,000 (down 21%) and 84,000 in the demo (down 21%). And that third place ranking may only get more stark if MSNBC’s numbers continue to rise accordingly.
Though Tucker Carlson’s primetime replacement didn’t make the cut for the Top 5 cable news shows, as measured by total viewers (or demo stats), Fox News still managed to take hold of all five slots with its programming, as laid out in the average-viewership totals below.
- The Five - 2.63 million (276,000 in 25-54 demographic)
- Jesse Watters Primetime - 2.14 million (194,000 demo)
- Hannity - 1.91 million (178,000 demo)
- Special Report with Bret Baier - 1.81 million (187,000 demo)
- Gutfeld! - 1.65 million (224,000 demo)
Give it up for Greg Gutfeld for pulling off a Top 5 placement, with a second-place average for its key demo ratings. And during a month when the WGA writers strike took out almost every other nightly talk show on TV.
Only time will tell if Fox News will figure out a way to reverse the declining numbers going into the summer months, or if MSNBC will find its own way to take over the top spots.
