OLD Media Moves

Kudlow’s ratings decline at Fox Business after strong start

William Cohan writes for Institutional Investor about how former CNBC anchor Larry Kudlow is fitting in at Fox Business.

Cohan writes, “Presumably, the TV overlords want to see an increasing slope of viewership over time. Perhaps thanks to Mnuchin, and others, Kudlow came out of the box strong: The February 19 ratings had Kudlow’s 4:00 show at 235,000 viewers, about a third of what Dobbs used to command. ‘Not terrible,’ says one longtime cable executive. (The consistent winner on Fox Business in the post-Dobbs era is Stuart Varney, who is on from 9:00 a.m. to noon weekdays and gets about 250,000 viewers for his show.)

“By the third week of March, though, Kudlow’s numbers were down to about 150,000 viewers while Varney’s show was hitting nearly 300,000. When Kudlow reairs at 7:00 p.m., it attracts about 75,000 viewers. By the end of March, according to Fox, the show had settled into a daily viewership of about 190,000 people. Fox has declared victory. Not only has Kudlow delivered more viewers — and more prosperous viewers — to Fox Business in the 4:00 p.m. time slot, Fox claims that he has also swiped 7 percent of CNBC viewers during that time period. Fox has said that since it began airing on Fox Business, Kudlow’s show has become the tenth-most-watched show on business television. (Disclosure: I have been a paid CNBC contributor since 2018.)

“A bigger concern than ratings is whether Kudlow will ultimately be able to fit into the Fox ethos of culture wars and bashing everything Biden, from rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement to the ‘Iran Deal Disaster,’ as a chyron at the bottom of Kudlow’s show read one day recently. Is Kudlow just ‘another horn in the trumpet section?,’ wonders one longtime former cable television executive.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

Recent Posts

BNN Bloomberg anchor Kanwar is departing

Amber Kanwar, an anchor for BNN Bloomberg in Canada, is departing at the end of…

7 mins ago

Moody’s promotes Kantrow to editor in chief

Moody's Ratings has promoted Yvette Kantrow to senior vice president and editor in chief. She has been…

12 mins ago

Politico reporter Fieseler departs

Politico reporter Clare Fieseler is leaving the news organization to take on some ocean reporting projects. She…

16 mins ago

WSJ’s Eisen to write book about the mortgage market

Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Eisen has signed a contract with Norton to write a book about…

2 hours ago

Reuters hires Krishnakutty as a news producer

Reuters has hired Pia Krishnakutty as a news producer. She has been at The Print as a…

2 hours ago

Indianapolis Biz Journal seeks a news editor

The Indianapolis Business Journal is looking for our next news editor, a role that focuses…

17 hours ago