Newsmax beats Fox News in ratings for the 1st time

It was only for an hour, but Newsmax beat Fox News among the coveted 25- to 54-year-old demographic for the first time Monday evening, CNN Business reports. Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports beat Martha MacCallum's Fox News program in the 7 p.m. hour, bumping MacCallum down to No. 4 in cable news, behind Erin Burnett on CNN and Joy Reid on MSNBC.

"Before the election, Newsmax was not regarded as a formidable competitor to Fox; it was mostly dismissed as one of a handful of wannabe challengers," CNN's Brian Stelter reports. "But President Trump's loss on Nov. 3 changed the cable TV calculus. Viewers who were frustrated when Fox admitted the truth of Trump's loss sought other options," and "Newsmax — and Kelly in particular — offered a safe space in which Biden was not called president-elect and Trump was not yet defeated."

The Balkanization of conservative media has been, incidentally, very good for CNN.

Fox News' conservative opinion shows still significantly outperform its news programs, and Newsmax focuses on opinion programming. "It must be emphasized that Fox is still far ahead of Newsmax by almost every conceivable metric," with Fox News "still four times higher-rated than Newsmax at any given time of day," Stelter notes, citing Nielsen. "But Fox is accustomed to being No. 1 in the 25-54 demo so losing to Newsmax, even for one hour of one day, is a serious shock."

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