Fox News Ratings ‘Collapsed’ During John Lewis Funeral
Viewers who typically watch Fox News all day long fled in droves when the network decided to broadcast the funeral in full last week.
ALYSSA POINTER / Getty
Fox News’ daytime ratings “fell off a cliff” on Thursday when the network started broadcasting the funeral for congressman and civil-rights icon John Lewis, CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter reported on his show Reliable Sources over the weekend.
On Monday, Stelter elaborated with a series of tweets that demonstrated just how much Fox’s typically loyal viewers did not want to watch former President Barack Obama and others eulogize the Democratic lawmaker.
While Fox was in the lead (as it usually is) during the 9 a.m. hour with 1.7 million viewers, once the funeral began the following hour, “viewership collapsed,” bottoming out at just over half a million viewers by 1 p.m. (Fox is represented by the red line in the graphic; CNN is blue and MSNBC is green). “Yet more evidence that Fox has totally demonized Democrats?” Stelter asked.
Fox had nearly 1.9 mil viewers in the 9am hour, but once the funeral began, viewership collapsed: 825,000 viewers in the 11am hour, 540,000 in the 1pm hour. CNN & MSNBC gained audience, which is normal during a big event (2/3) pic.twitter.com/FjMPhnJvts
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 3, 2020
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