Since President Trump left office in January, CNN host Brian Stelter has lost nearly 1 million views, according to a new report.

Stelter’s tanking viewership surface Thursday afternoon after he contacted Newsmax on Wedneday evening about “Newsmax’s ratings declines for my CNN newsletter.”

Stelter contacted Newsmax at 9 p.m. on Wednesday night and said he would give them just one hour to respond, meaning a 10 p.m. deadline.

Without Newsmax’s response, CNN’s Stelter email newsletter, headlined “Newsmax’s rise and fall,” noted that “Newsmax TV gained a lot of attention last fall when disaffected Fox News fans flocked to the channel en masse. … Newsmax’s Nielsen ratings are way off the post-election highs that I wrote about three and four months ago.”

Stelter chalked up his “Newsmax is falling” story to his theory that “Newsmax is no longer getting a pro-Trump Big Lie ratings boost. Biden is a comparatively tame story.”

Newsmax sent Stelter the following response: “Only CNN would do a story on Newsmax’s drop in ratings when its own Nielsen total day impressions fell by 45% last week compared to the week after the election, and Brian Stelter’s own ‘Reliable Sources’ show fell by 44% over the same period with, more recently, his show having lost nearly 1 million viewers since January of this year.”

CNN and Stelter have been advocates of “deplatforming” the Newsmax channel, in a clear censorship effort to reduce competition, especially as their own ratings have fallen off a cliff.

Here’s what the current Nielsen ratings really do show:

  • Newsmax remains the #4 cable news channel in the United States.
  • Newsmax remains a top 25 cable network for Total Day.
  • Newsmax growth has accelerated over the past three quarters, up 24% in P2+ impression and up 23% in A35-64 viewers, from fourth quarter 2020 to first quarter 2021.
  • Newsmax has seen double-digit P2+ ratings growth from fourth quarter 2020 to first quarter 2021, led by “Spicer & Co.” (+39%), “Greg Kelly Reports” and “American Agenda” (+35%), “Rob Schmitt Tonight” (+31%), and “Stinchfield” (+24%).

Over the past few months, Newsmax has had a sudden rise, catapulting the independent network as a top cable news player.

This fact has panicked not only CNN but Fox News, which has made dramatic changes in its lineup to counter Newsmax.

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