The ratings chart showed a drastic decline in daytime Fox News viewership on Thursday when the network started to broadcast the funeral service for the late civil rights icon and Congressman John Lewis.
According to the chart, Fox News was way ahead of its competitors, CNN and MSNBC during the 9 a.m. hour with about 1.9 million viewers. But, once the network started broadcasting the service, there was a precipitous decline in viewership that may be attributed to loyal Fox News viewers changing the channel.
CNN media’s correspondent, Brian Stelter suggested on his show over the weekend that that may be due to the network demonizing Democrats.
Also, I doubt loyal Fox News viewers would sit around to watch President Obama and other Democrats pay tribute to Lewis.
Meanwhile, CNN and MSNBC saw an increase in viewership which Stelter says is normal for big events.
CNN leads on Thursday with viewers age 25 – 54. According to Nielsen Media Research, the network scored the best ratings in cable news from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m., with 333,000 viewers in the demo (CNN’s best hour with this demographic came when President Obama was delivering his eulogy). Fox News was second with 301,000 viewers. And MSNBC third with 252,000 viewers in the demographic.
However, MSNBC came out on top in the overall audience. 1.83 million viewers tune in to the network on Thursday. Fox was second with 1.81 million and CNN third with 1.34 million viewers.
Check Mediaite for a more in-depth analysis of Thursday’s numbers.
