Fox News popularity slipping among Republicans, poll shows. Where are viewers going?
A recent poll shows Republicans view Fox News less favorably than they did before Election Day — and the television ratings show the proof.
The Morning Consult survey showed 67% of Americans who identify as Republican had a favorable opinion of the right-leaning network before Election Day. In a survey conducted the week after the election, favorability slipped to 54%, including 30% of Republicans giving an unfavorable view of the network. Morning Consult collected responses from 18,574 Republicans from Dec. 2019 to this month, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
What happened?
Fox News became the first network to call Arizona for now-President-elect Joe Biden, doing so several days before other TV competitors called the race in the battleground state. Fox News later joined other networks in calling the election for Biden on Nov. 7.
President Donald Trump often tweets segments from Fox News programs, but he has become more critical of the network over the course of his time in office.
“They forgot what made them successful, what got them here,” Trump said in a tweet last week while mentioning the network’s declining ratings. “The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews.”
The network also cut away from White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany last week during a press briefing, with the anchor saying they needed to hear details to support her claims of election fraud.
The distaste toward the network spread to at least part of Trump’s Republican base. During last weekend’s “Million MAGA March,” video shows some of the president’s supporters were chanting “Fox News sucks!”
Decline in ratings
Trump was not wrong when stating some of Fox News’ ratings are down.
Fox News lost its hold atop the morning and daytime ratings for the first time since 2001 this week, according to The Wrap. MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” averaged 1.62 million viewers last week, compared to 1.38 million for “Fox & Friends,” The Wrap reported.
But Fox News still outpaced other networks in the first post-election week prime time ratings, the Hill reported. It had 3.5 million total viewers for its prime-time shows — more than a million more than CNN and MSNBC, according to The Hill.
On YouTube, videos by Fox News are being watched less frequently. Data by Transparency Tube shows far right-wing news channels are gaining a larger share of the Republican audience on the website than before the election.
Rise of OANN, Newsmax
Trump has pushed for viewers to move toward Newsmax and OANN(One America News Network, two right-leaning networks.
“Fox has never seen competition like this,” CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter said of the emerging networks. “There is demand for a fictional universe... Reliable news sources are mostly moving on to cover President-Elect Biden. There is an entire constellation of websites and talk shows that are in denial just like Trump.”
Newsmax, founded by Trump’s longtime friend Chris Ruddy, saw its primetime ratings increase tenfold the week after the election, according to the Associated Press.
“We’re killing it here on Newsmax with a tactic they’ve never tried,” Newsmax personality Grant Stinchfield said on air Monday, the AP reported. “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.”
Its website also overtook Breitbart as the most-visited right-leaning website, according to Axios.
Like Newsmax, OANN has pushed conspiracy theories relating to voter fraud, USA Today reported. There has been no evidence of widespread election fraud.
OANN has began to rise out of Fox News’ shadow as an option for right-wing viewers, a trend that has partially been fueled by Trump.
“Try watching @OANN,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “Really GREAT!”
