When you are starting to lose footing in a business, it’s not common for a company to make an all or nothing effort to lure someone away from the competition that might be a boon to their profits.
For example, the wrestling company WCW was losing the ratings war to the WWF in the 1990s, they hired a guy that they thought was going to be a creative boon named Vince Russo. Well, he turned out to be the guy that sunk the company.
You have to be careful with who you hire, and if you are already turning off people that have been loyal to you for years, it might be a good idea to not try to make them even madder than they already are.
Ever since election night in 2020, the ratings at FOX News have been in free-fall. Millions of loyal fans felt betrayed when the network called Arizona early for Biden while holding off calling other obvious wins for Trump.
Now they are considering firing their current CEO, instead of people like Chris Wallace and Juan Williams.
The stunning thing about this is that they are reportedly considering hiring David Rhodes, the brother of former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes, as their new chief.
How is this supposed to bring their fans back? If anything, this would make matters even worse…
Showbiz 411 reports:
Fox News in Ratings Freefall as Maddow Trounces Hannity, Former CBS News Chief David Rhodes Eyes Top Job
It’s panic time at my old stomping grounds, Fox News.
There are reports that Suzanne Scott, who’s been running the show since Roger Ailes was destroyed and ousted, is on her way out. David Rhodes, former head of CBS News, who started under Ailes at Fox in 1996, is said to be in line to take over. He returned to Fox News almost a year ago and is running the London operation.
What’s happened? Fox News is in a ratings freefall. During the day and afternoon CNN is now beating it over the head. Later, at 9pm, Rachel Maddow has opened a wide lead over Sean Hannity. On Wednesday night, when the impeachment vote was happening, Maddow scored 4,7 million viewers. Hannity had under just 3.3 million.
Maddow trounced Hannity every day this week, actually. And that translated into the 10pm slot, with Lawrence O’Donnell handing Laura Ingraham her hat, as they used to say. As in: here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?
If FOX News has any interest in winning back the fans they’ve lost in recent months, this is the WORST way of doing it.