OPINION:
There’s some host-to-host combat at the nation’s leading cable news network.
Fox News still rules the ratings race above its competitors for a record breaking 150 consecutive months as the most-watched cable news network in both prime time and daytime programming. There are also some ratings phenomena in-house: Megyn Kelly, whose direct, often fearless presence is showcased at 9 p.m., has garnered better ratings from time to time than veteran host Bill O’Reilly, the 8 p.m. kingpin.
She has “out-rated her lead-in, reigning cable news champ Bill O’Reilly, on several occasions,” points out The Hollywood Reporter.
“I think it shows who Megyn is. She’s a great broadcaster, and she’s a great journalist,” Bill Shine, executive vice president for programming, told the West Coast publication.
And the numbers? Ms. Kelly has sporadically trumped Mr. O’Reilly in the ratings race since her big debut in primetime last October. In June, however, she topped his viewership for an entire week across multiple age demographics, a phenomenon deemed “an earthquake” by Deadline Hollywood, an insider industry publication. Both hosts draw somewhere around 2.5 million viewers nightly.
Ms. Kelly, 43, spent a decade as a practicing attorney and litigator before going into broadcast. She has been with Fox News for a decade, previously anchoring daytime news coverage and political events. Earlier this year, she was named to TIME magazine’s roster of the 100 most influential people in the world.
But to her 704,000 Twitter followers, she describes herself in simple terms: “Happily married to Doug, crazy in love with my children Yates, Yardley, and Thatcher.”
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