Once again to absolutely no one's surprise like in
2013 and
2014 Fox News (FN) and black viewers don't mix - like water and oil.
Fox News is still the most watched cable news channel, beating out CNN and MSNBC, and it is also the most watched cable network. And by that I mean the cable network with the most consistent audience numbers. The network still averages about 2.1 million viewers daily, though, depending on the day or show, that number can go even higher, to 2.7 million to 3.1 million viewers.
Other cable networks can do just as well, but they fluctuate wildly. OWN's average viewing audience is around 508,000, but occasionally, a special show can bring its audience up 4 million. ESPN's audience numbers shift dramatically from 1.5 million viewers on average to over 6 million. And of course there's AMC's "The Walking Dead," the most watched series on cable or commercial TV, which regularly pulls in around 14 million viewers, though nothing else on the network comes even remotely close.
But FN just keeps chugging along, despite the fact that, for the past two years, black viewership for the channel has been around 1.1%. Compare that with MSNBC which has averaged 145,000 black viewers, about 19.3% of its 751,000 total audience. Meanwhile CNN has averaged 134,000 black viewers, representing 20.7% of its 648,000 total audience according to the Huffington Post.
However, in 2015, the average percentage of black viewers on Fox News jumped from 1.1% to a whopping 1.38% which translates to about 29,000 black viewers. Time to break out the champagne!!
Why that measly increase of .28%? Who knows? Maybe because the network is getting a few more black men to watch thanks to (ahem...) certain curvaceous talent, like news anchor Harris Faulkner (pictured above). I've never seen or heard of her before, but I think I might be watching her now. Go figure!
It's sort of like that former would-be actress and now clueless Fox pundit, Stacey Dash. No matter how insulting or idiotic what she says when she's on FN, I just can't get mad at her because of that Playboy nude spread she did a few years ago. Go figure!
But a big problem for Fox News is not their lack of black watchers. They're doing just fine without us. One big problem still is that the channel also has, far and away, the oldest viewers of any cable network, with the average age of 68. CNN moved up the average age of their audience significantly to the mid-50's thanks to it's combination of news shows, documentaries and prime time specials.
Fox News' audience literally is dying off, and are not being replaced by younger viewers. But why change anything if it's still working really well, and bringing in the big advertising bucks? Even if it means being the No. 1 network for angry white guys afraid that black guys are going to break into their homes, take their stuff and have sex with their wives. There are millions of those angry white guys to make the network No. 1.
