With Trump Out of Office, Mainstream Television News Stations CNN, MSNBC Experience Sharp Decline In Viewership, Fox… Not So Much
NEW YORK, NY – Love him or loathe him, but one thing is for sure – over the past four years, a lot of people have been pulling in some very impressive ratings – and money – covering Donald Trump’s presidency. However, that’s all over now.
What many experts have anticipated has come to pass – the high ratings that many of the major news networks garnered over the course of the past four years have – now that Donald Trump is a civilian again – taken a significant and predictable drop since these networks no longer have the former president to rage and rally against on a nightly basis.
According to analysis by Variety, during the first week of Joe Biden’s presidency, CNN – a network well-known for being critical of the Trump Administration – has seen their evening viewership correspondingly and noticeably decline. During the week of January 4 through January 8, CNN’s 8 p.m. broadcast averaged 5.19 million viewers; in contrast, the same 8 p.m. programming for the week of January 25 through January 29 garnered just 2.04 million viewers.
MSNBC, another left-leaning network, has also seen their ratings dip since Trump left office, although not as badly as the drop CNN experienced; MSNBC performs more strongly with certain key demographics, including people ages 25-54. During the week of January 4 through January 8, MSNBC’s 8 p.m. broadcast averaged 4.6 million viewers; the same 8 p.m. programming for the week of January 25 through January 29 saw viewership drop to 2.33 million viewers.
Meanwhile, Fox News, which enjoyed record ratings in 2020 due to the overall support many of their anchors provided to President Trump, had experienced a small ratings slump leading into the end of Trump’s presidency which continues to this day. However, overall, Fox has lost far less viewers overall than either CNN or MSNBC.
During the week of January 4 through January 8, Fox’s 8 p.m. broadcast averaged 4.18 million viewers; the same 8 p.m. programming for the week of January 25 through January 29 saw that number drop to a significantly lesser decline of 3.5 million viewers.
News networks were already facing major competition as more consumers cut-the-cord, but will apparently be facing an even more uphill battle for ratings – in a post-Trump world.
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