This was posted Monday, May 22, 2017 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
For the first time in nearly 17 years, Fox News lost in the key 25-54 demographic to MSNBC and CNN in prime time over the span of an entire week.
The spate of bad news for President Donald Trump didn't help matters for Fox while fueling interest for those who follow MSNBC and CNN. Fox is also adjusting to life without its most popular host Bill O'Reilly, who was ousted recently after the New York Times revealed $13 million in payments to settle sexual harassment lawsuits.
Fox's dominance has been so secure for so long, Bill Clinton was still president the last time they had come in third place the week of June 9. "Survivor," now in its 34th incarnation, was in its third week and building into a reality show phenomenon. And Nicolas Cage was in major action movie star mode with the No. 1 movie that week in "Gone in 60 Seconds."
Among 25-to-54 year olds, MSNBC led last week with 610,000 followed by CNN's 588,000 and Fox News' 497,000. In overall viewers, MSNBC averaged 2,437,000 to Fox News' 2,405,000 and CNN's 1,848,000. Atlanta-based CNN has the highest percentage of younger viewers among the three networks.
With O'Reilly gone, Rachel Maddow at 9 p.m. now consistently draws the biggest audiences among all cable news networks.
ADDENDUM: Proof the Fox News publicists read what I write, they sent me this note for context - context, in their favor, of course:
FOX News is still the number one network for the month of May and, since the new primetime programming launched on 4/24, FNC remains the top network in basic cable in total day and ranks only second to NBC playoff focused TNT since new primetime programming launched.
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