Wild year for cable news: Shakeups, firings and ratings challenges
The cable news business was not pretty in 2023.
Fox News was beleaguered by a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems that cost the network $787.5 million to settle. Then the network jettisoned its top-rated prime-time anchor Tucker Carlson, whose inflammatory statements about race and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection put him on the moretrouble-than-he’s-worth list.
CNN had a turbulent period under the brief tenure of Chris Licht, who was fired from his post as chairman in June. His attempt to please conservatives by booking more Republican guests and a chaotic town hall with former President Donald Trump invited criticism and alienated viewers.
And then there were the ratings.
While Fox News finished 2023 as the most-watched cable network for the eighth straight year, its average audience of 1.2 million viewers was its lowest since 2015, according to Nielsen data. In the weeks after Carlson’s exit, some viewers bolted to rightwing channel Newsmax, which saw its audience rise 20% to 145,000, though many later boomeranged back to Fox.
CNN averaged 481,000 viewers, its poorest showing since 2014. The network also hit an all-time low in the 25 to 54 age group sought by advertisers.
The network lost to left-leaning MSNBC, which increased viewership 7% over last year to 792,000, partly thanks to its coverage of Trump’s multiple criminal indictments. Even as a once-a-week host, Rachel Maddow remains a favorite of progressive MSNBC Moms as her program averaged 2.4 million viewers, making it the NBCUniversal-owned network’s toprated show.
While the specific problems that Fox News and CNN faced did not help, their audience declines can also be attributed to the existential crisis the cable business is facing because of cord-cutting consumers who have abandoned pay TV subscriptions for streaming video. Fox News, CNN and MSNBC now each reach around 70 million homes. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence data, compared to more than 90 million homes in 2016.
The trend poses a challenge for the networks that depend on pay TV subscriber fees for the bulk of their revenue. They are also contending with a growing number of competitors as more video news sources are being discovered by consumers via streaming.
The decline in younger consumers using pay TV has cut into one of the strengths of CNN, which has long boasted an audience with the lowest median age in cable news. CNN’s median age was 67 this year, up from 60 in 2017.
That figure is still lower than the median age of the Fox News (68) and MSNBC (71) audiences. But CNN long benefited from being the destination for younger viewers who were not habitual cable news viewers. They could be counted on to tune in during major breaking news events. Not so much anymore.
Consumers under age 50 have been the age demographic group abandoning pay TV at the most rapid pace. Many prefer to watch CNN content digitally on mobile and desktop platforms, which