The set of “Fox & Friends” took a moment on Thursday to take a ratings victory lap and use the show’s longtime dominance in that category to offer some pointed editorial advice to their competitors.
“If you look at the ratings on the cable networks, it seems like the American people are making their decision because our network is focusing on things other than Mueller and seems to be thriving if numbers matters,” co-host Brian Kilmeade said. “And the people that are focusing on Mueller, they seem to be tanking.”
The argument is an old one at Fox News, which has consistently led their chief rivals, CNN and MSNBC in both overall ratings and the advertiser coveted 25-54 age demographic. “Fox & Friends” has long been far out-front of both MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and CNN’s “New Day” in both metrics.
In April, the show celebrated 210 months in the top spot averaging 1.5 million viewers and 289,000 with the 25-54 demo, according to Nielsen data. And while Fox News does spend a significant amount of time on the Mueller Report and related issues, they are frequently chided by competitors for not taking a more critical stance against President Trump.
In addition to the show’s commanding ratings position, “Fox & Friends” has also reached unprecedented levels of clout given that President Trump is known to be a near-daily viewer of the program. Trump frequently sends out approving tweets of news items he watches there and from time to time hosts have been known to look directly into the camera and address him personally.
Before becoming president, Trump phoned in regularly to the show in a relationship that stretches back to 2011. He infamously used the platform to promote the false conspiracy theory that President Obama had not been born in the United States.