MSNBC surged past Fox News in prime time in both the key 25-54 age bracket and in total viewers last week, snapping Fox’s 120-week winning streak. MSNBC was aided by coverage of Donald Trump’s federal indictment and the decline in Fox’s viewership since Tucker Carlson’s ouster.
Summary
MSNBC surged past Fox News in prime time in both the key 25-54 age bracket and in total viewers last week, snapping Fox’s 120-week winning streak.
- MSNBC was aided by coverage of Donald Trump’s federal indictment and the decline in Fox’s viewership since Tucker Carlson’s ouster. MSNBC also surpassed both Fox and CNN in primetime for the first time since 2018.
- Earlier this week, Fox News sent Carlson a cease-and-desist letter demanding he stop his new Twitter series. The former star host and the network have been engaged in a contract battle since Carlson’s April ouster after Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787 million to settle a defamation case about Fox’s coverage of Dominion and the 2020 election.
- Carlson’s Twitter series drew a combined 169 million views for its first two episodes, according to Axios. The cease-and-desist letter sent to Tucker reportedly had “NOT FOR PUBLICATION” written at the top.
- Fox News also courted controversy this week by running a headline saying the “Progress Pride” flag, the version of the pride flag hung at the White House with a triangle symbolizing transgenderism overlaid on top of the traditional gay rights rainbow, promotes “grooming and pedophilia.”
- The network quietly revised the headline after receiving criticism on social media from LGBT activists and a White House spokesman.
- Newsweek dug into the Nielsen ratings data. For the first week of June, “Fox’s primetime 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET viewership averaged 1,504,429. The average viewership for the more left-leaning MSNBC over the same time frame averaged 1,520,857, narrowly beating out the conservative network that has long been a leader in cable news viewership.”
- The Independent compared the original and revised Fox News pride headline. The original: “White House flew controversial new transgender flag that promotes grooming and pedophilia, say critics.” The revised headline: “White House flew controversial new transgender flag that troubles some critics in the gay community”.
- White House spokesman Andrew Bates accused Fox News of “characteristically lying through their teeth” with the Pride article written by reporter Kerry Byrne. Yahoo! News described the scene as “tensions between the Biden administration and Fox News…boiled over this week.”
- The New York Post reported Twitter is planning to focus on bolstering “video, creator, and commerce partnerships” to expand the company’s revenue streams beyond digital advertising. “Tucker on Twitter” may be the forerunner of this new model, as “Twitter envisions that it could sell ads and sponsorships alongside videos from Carlson and other content creators.”
- MarketWatch noted Carlson’s contract “runs until early 2025 and restricts his ability to appear on other media outlets. Meanwhile, Carlson’s lawyers have said the network breached the contract first.”
- Breitbart’s John Nolte wrote, “Firing Tucker Carlson is proving to be Fox’s Waterloo.” Nolte conceded, “It is now time to admit I got another one wrong. While I accurately predicted Carlson would be just fine and would continue to have a voice and an impact on the national conversation, I also predicted, “Fox News will be just fine.” Well, never have I been so happy to be so wrong.”
Return to Freespoke 
© Dominic Moore, 2023
