On February 9th, Fox Business News (FBN) announced that they were cancelling two shows in their business lineup and replacing them with alternative business programming. One of these shows, Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano, is a story of the economic impact low ratings can have on a host who is very popular to a large segment of people.
Before hosting his own program on FBN, Judge Napolitano was a guest analyst who appeared regularly on numerous shows in the pantheon of Fox programming. From Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, and the O'Reilly Factor, Judge Napolitano's insight and experience was widely acknowledged and widely trusted by conservatives, and moderates alike. Due to that popularity, the Judge was given his own show on the Fox Business Network starting in May of 2010, which expanded his online webcast called Freedom Watch, and elevated it into an hour long cable network show.
Although Judge Napolitano has a huge following in conservative and legal circles, his show did not received the audience numbers necessary to sustain programming, especially in the cutthroat world of cable news.
October numbers to date prove to be Napolitano’s lowest rated month for total viewers (P2+) since May ’11, and the absolute lowest rated month in the demo all year, averaging a measly 50,000 total viewers, with 8,000 in the demo. He’s also down 10% in total viewers, and a whopping 43% in the demo just since last month. To make matters worse, he loses more than half of the audience that the network’s top-rated Lou Dobbs Tonight brings in on a regular basis. – Mediate.com
Television programming is run on ratings, as this determines how much they can charge advertisers, and which big name companies will desire to purchase space during that time slot. Occasionally, advertisers will withdraw ad purchases based on commentary, or the controversial views of a host, but for the most part, ad sales are tied to viewership much more than opinion.
The popularity of Judge Napolitano himself, as well as his brilliant insight and opinions, do not appear to be the primary reasons for cancellation of his show. In fact, FBN is planning on keeping the Judge for regular guest appearances, and hosting opportunities for many broadcasts they run currently, and in the future.
Yet, one factor that Fox Business News may not have understood when they chose to cancel Freedom Watch was the massive public response that is taking place just one day after news broke of the cancellation. Already, a Facebook drive to inundate Fox Business News with emails and phone calls has amassed several thousand people, and economist and conservative analyst Lew Rockwell is using his own platform to engineer a protest against FBN for their programming decision.
Additionally, Delaware radio talk show host Angel Clark is leading the way in a protest against advertisers who pay for spots on both Fox News, and Fox Business News. History shows that people and protests can make a difference when profits begin to affect a company's bottom line.
There is a growing anger amongst the conservative and libertarian community over Fox Business News's decision to cancel Freedom Watch, and the very popular Judge Napolitano from their scheduled programming. It is too early to determine how much of an economic impact this may have on viewers of Fox News and Fox Business News should more conservatives boycott the network, or escalate their ire against advertisers of the station, but in hindsight, there is something to be said about the old axiom of cutting off the arm to save the body. Only the future will determine if keeping Freedom Watch on the air, with the knowledge that it may be losing money in the long run, will be more beneficial as a whole to Fox News and Fox Business News, if in the end, they lose much more viewers and more advertisers network wide for this decision.
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