Fox News is no longer the conservative news network it was five years ago. With the addition of several liberals to their line-up, including debate cheater, and frequent guest commentator Donna Brazile, and whiny liberal “The Five” co-host Juan Williams, but when Americans want real news without the lies and leftist propaganda, they’re increasingly turning to the popular network, featuring conservatives like Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Judge Jeanine, Jesse Watters, and Laura Ingraham.t
Meanwhile, the #1 Fox News Network continues to obliterate its liberal competitors like MSNBC and the #22 rated CNN.
Townhall – It is almost impossible to overstate the impact of Fox on conservatism over the last two decades. Combined with talk radio and the internet, Fox has helped educate and mobilize a generation of conservative leaders and has given voice to tens of millions of people the rest of the media completely disregarded when it wasn’t actively attacking them.
The idea behind the Fox News channels was by no means a stroke of genius; it was actually a stroke of the blazingly obvious. Why not create a cable news network that was explicitly not another Democrat propaganda machine and directly target the 50 percent of Americans the rest of the media either ignores or treats like dirt? The genius of Roger Ailes came in its execution – everything from the uniquely hot color palette to the uniquely hot journalists to the (at first) unique mix of opinion and straight reporting, all backed by a lean, mean organization that produced great reporting and huge profits.
The Hill reports – Fox News averaged 2.5 million viewers per night in 2019, the most in its 23-year history, making the network the most-watched channel on basic cable.
According to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News beat out ESPN, with its 1.78 million viewers, and third-place MSNBC, which drew an average of 1.75 million viewers in prime time. Fox topped its cable competitors for a fourth straight year, Nielsen said.
CNN finished 22nd, with an average of 972,000 viewers per night.
The top five shows in cable news for 2019 were Fox’s “Hannity,” with 3.3 million, followed by “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” with 3.1 million.
MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” was third, with 2.78 million, followed by Fox’s “The Ingraham Angle,” with 2.57 million, and “The Five” at 2.55 million.
Among broadcast networks, CBS took the top spot with an average of 7.14 million viewers in prime time. NBC was second, with 6.33 million, followed by ABC, with 5.19 million. Fox TV was fourth, at 4.62 million, but it was the only broadcast network among the four to increase viewership from 2018.
