THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Greg Gutfeld

Fox News dominated the ratings race Tuesday in the valuable demographic of viewers age 25-54, with host Greg Gutfeld making two separate appearances in the top five most-watched among younger viewers.

Tucker Carlson, whose latest controversial (but not entirely surprising) move is defending podcaster Joe Rogan’s latest controversial (but not entirely surprising) move discouraging young people from getting vaccinated, was most-watched overall Tuesday, with Tucker Carlson Tonight averaging 2.95 million total viewers, and 506,000 in the key demo, according to data from Nielsen.

The Five, co-hosted by Gutfeld, was second in total viewers, with nearly 2.7 million, and third in the demo, with 383,000. Hannity was third in total viewers, with 2.58 million, and second in the demo, with 410,000. The Rachel Maddow Show was fourth in total viewers, with 2.49 million, but with 357,000 viewers in the demo, Maddow didn’t make the top five with younger viewers.

Gutfeld’s eponymous late-night show, Gutfeld!, was also fifth in the key demo, with 364,000, and had 1.57 million total viewers.

Fox was first overall in total day, averaging 1.52 million total viewers and 260,000 in the demo, and was well ahead in prime time as well. CNN was third in both. 

Gutfeld's double hit in the top 5 is a capper on Fox's big ratings day.

MEDIA LOSER:
Big Lie Supporters

Trump supporters in politics and media melted down over President Joe Biden’s speech, continuing to propagate the fantasy that the 2020 election was stolen. 

Liz Harrington, a former spokesperson for the RNC who previously served as a writer for the Washington Free Beacon, took to Twitter to express her entirely unfounded hunch that Biden could not have won as many votes as he did.

“You will never, ever, convince me this man got 81 million votes,” she wrote. “Didn’t happen.”

“We’ll give up our ghost guns if Biden gives up his ghost voters,” she said in another tweet.

Jenna Ellis, who drew fame (and mockery) for her performance as a lawyer for the Trump campaign in its ill-fated quest to overturn the 2020 election, also rejected the results in tweets on Wednesday night. And she called the election “rigged.”

Pro-Trump network One America News also had trouble reckoning with Biden’s victory, 100 days into his presidency.

“There were a lot of dead people that voted in the last election,” OAN host Natalie Harp said on the network after the president’s speech.

The fury didn't have much impact on how the night went. The speech was well-received even by Fox's Chris Wallace, who noted "This is going to be a popular speech with the American public.”

The A-Block

Cable News and Biden’s First 100 Days

Friday, April 30th, marks President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office, which has long been a convenient benchmark for assessing a new administration. Given the outsize influence of cable news — particularly those of the opinion variety — it’s also a useful time to assess how each network has adjusted to the new administration.

There is no denying that the end of the Trump administration brought with it a massive change in political media coverage.  Gone are the hourly tweets from a commander-in-chief who didn’t just delight in consuming cable news but also engaged in real-time criticism and over-the-top comments that helped distract the national discourse from a narrative that may have been less flattering for former President Donald Trump.

The 45th President was very much the never-ending perpetual news-making machine from which all networks benefited. As a result, each network has had to adjust to the vacuum of news created by Trump’s de-platforming off of all social media and his exit from office. Cable news has also had to deal with a tranche of viewers eager to return to binge-watching Netflix, watching sports, or reality television. Cable news fatigue is real, and each network has seen a predictable drop in viewership as a result.

This is a strange time in the cable news wars in that each network has had some reason to crow over recent ratings success. Fox News was forever the dominant primordial ratings beast, but the end of 2020 saw CNN surprisingly at the top while Fox viewers interested in hearing how Trump lost to a “rigged” election went to other outlets. MSNBC also had many ratings wins as well—and even won overall ratings for the first quarter of this year—but could just as easily fall to third place in April, which illustrates just how fickle viewers have become in a post-Trump world. In short, the cable networks are now more evenly matched than ever before.

Each cable news outlet serves a very different purpose for a very different set of viewers. To suggest a hard and fast rule for what works for all three networks is to parade one’s ignorance of how each network has very different ways of achieving their goals of ratings-based revenue.

Read the full assessment of what's worked, what hasn't, and what's next, from Colby Hall



In Other News...

Twitter Removes 'Uncle Tim' from Trending Topics After Senator Scott Attacked Over Biden Rebuttal Speech

Brian Kilmeade Says Biden Keeping the Nation in a 'Sense of Panic' on Covid So Dems Can Keep Spending Money

Chris Christie Rips Biden Address: He 'Should Know Better,' Sounded Like a 15-Year-Old With a Credit Card

Obama Economic Adviser Warns Against Biden's 'Massive' Spending Plans: Potential for 'Failure of Execution' is High

Must See Clip

PLANTIFA

From President Joe Biden’s fabricated meat takedown to the false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris’ book is being given to migrant children at the border — Fox News has spent a lot of air time this week pushing scandals that turned out to be false.

In another episode of “Joe Biden: The Worst President in History That We Can Remember,” Trevor Noah brutally mocked Fox News hosts for stirring up outrage about scandals that turned out not to exist.

"Joe Biden, aka Plantifa, is banning meat!"

Links We Like

Biden's Record So Far: The Kind Of Revolution He Said He Would Not Pursue
- Lisa Lerer and Annie Karni, New York Times
Nancy Grace-Fronted True-Crime Docuseries ‘In The Valley Of Sin’ Set At Fox Nation
- Deadline
Here's Why Calling Out Joe Rogan's Covid Vaccine Misinfo Matters
- Drs. Esther Choo, Anand Swaminathan, Megan Ranney, NBC Think
Senator Scott’s Home Run
- Michael R. Strain, National Review
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