The popular Fox News program “The Five” host Geraldo Rivera made the announcement that he is leaving on Wednesday morning.
“Morning, it’s official, I’m off @TheFive. My last scheduled show appearances are Thursday and Friday June 29th and 30th. It’s been a great run and I appreciate having had the opportunity. Being odd man out isn’t always easy. For the time being, I’m still Correspondent at Large,” Rivera tweeted.
Morning, it’s official, I’m off @TheFive. My last scheduled show appearances are Thursday and Friday June 29th and 30th. It’s been a great run and I appreciate having had the opportunity. Being odd man out isn’t always easy. For the time being, I’m still Correspondent at Large.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) June 21, 2023
Following the network’s decision to remove top-rated personality Tucker Carlson from the air in late April, Fox News’ cable news ratings have plummeted among viewers aged 25 to 54.
Since things have become so terrible at the network, Joy Reid of MSNBC has surpassed Sean Hannity in the crucial demo.
Reporter Glenn Greenwald, a liberal, tweeted: “The 8 pm slot on Fox with Tucker was not only consistently number 1 in the key demo – 25-54 – but routinely had 400,000 viewers or more. Without Tucker, it’s crashed to worse-than-MSNBC levels: barely 100,000 people. Hannity is in 14th place, behind Joy Reid! A total collapse. It’s so clear Fox’s firing of Tucker was not just financially driven, bereft of the Murdochs’ and Paul Ryan’s ideological goals. Firing Tucker destroyed its prime-time ratings. There’s no argument Tucker’s twice-a-week Twitter postings compete with Fox. They want him silenced.”
The 8pm slot on Fox with Tucker was not only consistently number 1 in the key demo – 25-54 – but routinely had 400,000 viewers or more.
Without Tucker, it's crashed to worse-than-MSNBC levels: barely 100,000 people.
Hannity is in 14th place, behind Joy Reid!
A total collapse. https://t.co/amcsLNIZMo
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 20, 2023
Since Carlson was unceremoniously fired, Hannity’s primetime program has been under fire.
The audience for Hannity’s show, which peaked at about 2 million viewers in the last few weeks of May, has decreased to roughly 1.7 million on average so far in June. Prior to Carlson’s departure, Hannity’s primetime program regularly attracted about 3 million viewers each night.
“Fox News and MSNBC have been neck and neck in the cable news ratings in recent days and Wednesday was no different as Fox News and MSNBC tied in the total day demo. Fox beat MSNBC in total viewers in both the total day and primetime averages but lost the prime-time demo to MSNBC,” Mediaite reported. “Fox’s The Five remained the top-rated show on cable news with 2.68 million total viewers, helping to boost Fox’s average.”
“MSNBC and Fox both scored 156,000 total day demo viewers, while CNN was third with 111,000. In total day viewers, Fox won with 1.39 million viewers to MSNBC’s 1.2 million — CNN had 557,000. In prime time, Fox just beat MSNBC with 1.79 million total viewers to 1.76 million, and CNN was in third with 706,000. MSNBC won the prime-time demo with 216,000 viewers over Fox’s 166,000. CNN was third with 140,000 demo viewers,” the outlet added.
Left-wing rival MSNBC has dethroned Fox News Channel in prime time slots after years of dominating cable news ratings.
“Nielsen data regarding the week ending this past Sunday was shared on Twitter on Tuesday by A.J. Katz, a reporter specializing in the cable news business. According to the data, 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,” Newsweek reported.
New: According to Nielsen data, Fox News averaged 1,504,429 primetime viewers last week, while MSNBC averaged 1,520,857 primetime viewers.
Barring a last-second data reporting change, Fox's 120 week-long winning streak in primetime appears to be over. https://t.co/Q48BSYuFE7
— A.J. Katz (@ajkatztv) June 13, 2023
The network has not yet revealed a long-term alternative for its primetime position at 8 p.m. ET. They have chosen to alternate guest hosts for the hour in the interim.
Just shy of two years and four months, Fox News has maintained a remarkable run of 120 weeks as the leader in average weekly primetime viewing.
In the middle of February 2021, the network last failed to claim the top spot in weekly ratings.
Since being fired, Carlson has been tweeting quick monologues, which Fox claims is against the terms of his contract.
He has received a cease-and-desist letter from the network, but he has so far refused to comply, claiming that Fox is in breach of their contract with him.