From telling the news to BEING the news

Yesterday afternoon marked a major TV news shakeup the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Ron Burgundy was replaced by Veronica Corningstone. Within an hour of each other, both Fox News and CNN revealed they had parted ways with veteran news anchors Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon, respectively.

Neither news org provided a public reason for the departures, which came as a surprise to many. Fox News was still promoting Tucker Carlson Tonight – the No. 1 most-watched show in cable news with 3.25 million average viewers – a few hours before announcing his exit. And Lemon, who had been with CNN since 2006, recorded a show yesterday morning before later publishing a tweet saying he was “shocked” to learn he no longer had a job.

But “shocked” could also refer to the emotions stirred by the news anchors, who both have been the subject of public controversy in recent months.

• Carlson’s departure came less than a week after Fox News reached a record $787.5 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, in a case that publicized a trove of Carlson’s private text messages.
• Lemon was required to undergo formal training in February, following sexist comments he made on-air about GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley. His firing also came weeks after a Variety report alleged that Lemon had a history of making threatening and offensive comments to female workers at CNN.

📰📺 Zoom out: Following a sharp increase in 2020, viewership has declined across all major US cable news networks in each of the past two years. And while things are looking even worse at the moment – every major news network reported at least a double-digit annual drop in ratings last month (led by CNN at -52%, then Fox News at -27%) – cable news typically sees a bump in viewership during presidential election years.