The Democrats and their allies at CNN and MSNBC have just received a serious wake-up call from the October Nielsen ratings.
More Democrats in the key demographic age group are watching Tucker Carlson and Fox News than leftist cable rivals CNN and MSNBC.
Batya Ungar-Sargon, the deputy opinion editor at Newsweek, broke down what the numbers mean:
“Fox News got 42% of Democrats aged 25-54, CNN just 33% and MSNBC 25%.
“Carlson was top among Democrats in the demo across all cable news and ranked third among Dems in total viewership.
“Fox News’ & Carlson’s sizable audiences are not that easy to define.
“The crisis of credibility in mainstream liberal media outlets like MSNBC and CNN has sent Democrats running to Fox News & Tucker Carlson. Surprise! Unless you’ve been paying any attention at all!
“Much of this is about class: Fox caters to Americans w/out a college degree while liberal media abandoned the working class to wage a culture war about race, sending working-class liberals to Fox.
“But seems like the crisis in credibility has come for many college-educated Dems,” she said.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall at 30 Rock, when word came that Tucker Carlson got better ratings with young Democrats than Rachel Maddow. Like Spinal Tap when the Boston gig was canceled: “I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s not a big college town!” https://t.co/tPHEwJOLhi
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 3, 2022
Matt Taibbi said: “Oh, to be a fly on the wall at 30 Rock when word came that Tucker Carlson got better ratings with young Democrats than Rachel Maddow.
“Like Spinal Tap when the Boston gig was canceled: ‘I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s not a big college town!'”
From The Wrap:
Fox News unsurprisingly got the majority of the audience of self-proclaimed Republicans, with 69% of them overall tuning into total-day programming and 73% of them in the demo tuning into primetime programming.
CNN and MSNBC split the remaining conservatives with totals in the low double-digit percentages.
Fox News also commanded the largest number of independents in the key news demo during primetime and total-day hours: 55% of those 25-54 watched the network in primetime, compared to CNN’s 23% and MSNBC’s 22%.
During total-day hours, 58% of independents in the demo watch Fox News, 18% chose MSNBC and 25% selected CNN.
More surprising are the stats about Carlson and Fox News’ pull with self-proclaimed Democrats.
Of those demo-aged viewers surveyed who identified as Democrats, 39% chose Fox News, 31% chose MSNBC and 30% chose CNN for programming from 8 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET.
In total-day viewership, Fox News grabbed 42% of Democrats aged 25-54, CNN nabbed 33% and MSNBC got 25%.
Carlson was top among Democrats in the demo across all of cable news that month and ranked third place among Dems in total viewership, too.
Of the top four programs among Democrats in total viewers, Fox News had three: “The Five,” “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity.”
The top spot in total viewers went to MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
“Fox News got 42% of Democrats aged 25-54, CNN just 33% and MSNBC 25%. Carlson was top among Democrats in the demo across all cable news and ranked third among Dems in total viewership.. Fox News’ & Carlson’s sizable audiences are not that easy to define.”https://t.co/J0bvXsmMUK
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) February 2, 2022
