Bad News for Fox News, good news for MSNBC: Fox News is on the decline and MSNBC is on the ascent.
Fox News had its worst ratings since 2001 in January, according to the latest figures.
The network had a 12-year low in the coveted 25-54 demographic in primetime and fell to its lowest total day ratings since 2008, a press release from rival cable channel MSNBC stated on Tuesday.
And January marked the worst month ever for Fox’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” among the 25-54 demo, as well as the channel’s lowest total viewership in the 10 p.m. hour since July 2008.
At note at MSNBC, the cable network saw its ratings go up 11 percent in the 25-54 demo compared to January 2012. And “The Rachel Maddow Show” topped CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” this month, and also ranked number one among the 18-34 demo.
This could also explain some recent moves by Fox News maven Roger Ailes. He has apparently exiled Dick Morris, arguably the worst political pundit since the time of Moses. And he made former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a lower-figure contract renewal she could and did refuse after a year when various reports made it clear he was not pleased with Palin for ignoring some advice he gave her and also didn’t feel she had the highest mental wattage politically *(he later denied the story but that sounded like a typical backtrack).
FOOTNOTE: I monitor all the cable networks and have trouble watching Maddow. She repeats a concept four or five times. A concept she will repeat four or five times. Four or five times she’ll repeat a concept. Maddow four or five times repeat will she concept. (I suspect she could cover more topics on the air if she simply repeated an idea once, or twice, or maybe only three times..) As far as her interviews, show structure — that isn’t my complaint. But it’s the repeating. The repeating it is…(ETC)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.