Bill O’Reilly And Megyn Kelly Continue To Rule Cable News Ratings With Rachel Maddow Gaining Ground
Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly ruled the cable news ratings this week, with Kelly attracting slightly less viewers than she is used to. The ratings for the week were averaged from statistics at Zap2It, which didn’t include Monday’s ratings, since it was a holiday.
Bill O’Reilly averaged 3.03 million viewers a night this week. He had his highest ratings night on Wednesday, with 3.09 million viewers, and his lowest on Tuesday, with 2.93 million. He continued to talk about sanctuary cities, Hillary Clinton, and — of course — the presidential candidates. O’Reilly can be seen on a Fox News video clip discussing the major mistake he thinks Donald Trump has been making.
“First, Trump gets way too personal in defending himself against criticism,” O’Reilly explained.
He went on to discuss an interview with Rolling Stone, where Trump made fun of Carly Fiorina’s looks. O’Reilly then summed up his opinion on Trump’s personal attacks.
“Personal attacks get a lot of attention. But Trump doesn’t need any more attention since everybody knows him.”
This week, Megyn Kelly averaged 2.54 million viewers a night. Kelly had her biggest night on Wednesday, with 2.85 million viewers, and her lowest night on Thursday, with 2.32 million viewers. This week, Kelly talked a lot about the controversy over Kentucky clerk Kim Davis and her refusal to grant marriage licenses to gay couples. Kelly, who is pro-gay marriage, still thinks Davis may have a legal ground to stand on.
“The law actually is very clear. I refer you to Title 7 of the civil rights act. Under title 7 of the civil rights act, both public and private employers have a duty to exempt religious employees from generally applicable work rules so long as it won’t create an undue hardship. It applies to public and private employers.”
Kelly’s guest, Richard Fowler, told Kelly that as an elected public official, Davis cannot put her religious beliefs over somebody’s constitutional rights. Kelly, like others, thinks Kim Davis shouldn’t have to quit.
Unlike Megyn Kelly, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow had no sympathy for Kim Davis. Maddow is passionate about the issue and her audience is becoming bigger and bigger — although slowly. Maddow averaged 976,000 viewers a night this week, which is outstanding for a show on MSNBC.
Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly could lead the ratings race for the rest of the year, as no cable news personalities have come close to their success. It’s possible that Kelly can even end up surpassing O’Reilly as the nation’s No. 1 cable news personality. It would certainly be ironic, especially since Bill O’Reilly helped Megyn Kelly’s career by letting her constantly appear on his show.
[Photos by Brent N. Clarke (FilmMagic) and Randy Holmes (Disney ABC Television Group) for Getty Images]
