2017 is nearing an end, so it’s time to reveal your TVNewser Challenge predictions. A year ago at this time, we asked a dozen questions about the TV news business and asked for your predictions. Of course, we had no idea that the most-watched cable news anchor would be terminated, or that two of the three male network morning co-hosts would be abruptly fired, within a week of each other, or that there would be an anchor change in the evenings and that Megyn Kelly would become the highest-paid TV news personality.
So what will 2018 bring? We’ll pose those questions Thursday.
For now, here are the results of the 2017 TVNewser Challenge:
50 percent of you thought Kelly would stay at Fox News. Kelly surprised the TV news world when she announced on Jan. 3 that she was leaving Fox News for NBC News.
Well, the majority of you were right. He did renew his contract, but by April the king of cable news was out of a job. Fox News chairman Rupert Murdoch concluded that “a careful review of allegations against him” led to his departure from the network.
Nearly 70 percent of you said Trump would sit down with CNN. But he hasn’t. The commander in chief has given most of his televised interviews to Fox News Channel hosts, including a Super Bowl Sunday interview with O’Reilly. CNN’s Kate Bennett did interview first lady Melania Trump in China last month.
This was a tough one to gauge, but CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker is not a bad guess, which is what the majority of you went with. However, Trump’s public comments on Zucker this year weren’t really attacks, but boasts about how Trump helped get Zucker his job at CNN.
Most of you said MSNBC would not move past CNN in prime time. In fact, they did. MSNBC had its best year ever in prime time beating CNN in both total viewers and the A25-54 demo. It’s the first time MSNBC outranked CNN in the prime-time demo since 2013. MSNBC averaged 2.1 million total viewers, while CNN averaged 1.2 million.
The majority of you were right: Katy Tur hosts an afternoon show on MSNBC. But two of our other selections are also anchoring: Hallie Jackson anchors many mornings on MSNBC and Kasie Hunt got her own weekend show Kasie D.C.
The majority got this one right: CBS This Morning remains in third place. What we didn’t ask, nor could we have known, that one of the hosts, Charlie Rose, would be out of a job following accusations of workplace sexual harassment.
Fox & Friends edged Morning Joe in our poll, and continues to win the ratings as well. However, MSNBC’s Morning Joe had its best year on record and saw more growth than its competitors, up +44 percent in total viewers (vs. CNN’s +25 percent and Fox News’ +25 percent) and up +36 percent in the demo (vs. Fox News’ +32%).
The majority of you said NBC Nightly News, however in the last few weeks ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir has taken the lead.
Most of you said you’d still have cable by this time, this year. Do you still? Let us know in the comments.
53 percent of you said she would, and she was, in August.
45 percent said no. 32 percent said yes. 18 percent said maybe. When it debuted in July, The Nineties ranked No. 1 in the A25-54 demo, and was tracking ahead of the season averages of CNN’s other decade docs, The Eighties, The Seventies and The Sixties.