Remember when Laura Ingraham was going to be blown off her perch at Fox News by the relentless outrage of leftwing activists who vowed to wipe out her advertiser base for poking fun at David Hogg getting rejected by some universities?
Yeah, that didn’t really happen. In fact, if anything, Ingraham has only gotten more popular, seeing a 20% surge in viewers following the advertiser boycott and, this week, winning the prime time ratings battle.
In a moment noted by Mediaite, Ingraham and her fellow Fox host Sean Hannity took a moment to celebrate the success of the lone conservative news network in general and, specifically, Ingraham, who beat out the competition this week. Here’s how Mediaite reported Ingraham’s success, which came “despite recent controversies” surrounding her show:
Ingraham, despite recent controversies surrounding her 10 p.m. show, had a big week in the ratings, managing to beat MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow — who rivals Hannity at 9 p.m. — in the key 25-54 demo for the first time ever. The Ingraham Angle notched 2.7 million total viewers and 556,000 in the demo.
Clearly enjoying the chance to cheer his fellow primetime host’s victory over the leftwing activists from Media Matters and co., Hannity told Ingraham that the network is “really proud” of her. He also took the opportunity to thank the faithful Fox audience, who, if anything, grows all the more faithful amid campaigns targeting the network and its on-air personalities.
Hannity noted that over the last couple of years, Fox lost three out of the four of its primetime hosts (Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly, and Greta Van Susteren), but continues to dominate the ratings. “You know, we can’t do this without this audience,” said Hannity. “You know, we lost three-quarters of Fox primetime, and we’re still killing it, we’re number one, thank God to this audience. And I mean that.”
Speaking of O’Reilly, who says that he was the victim of a “far-left” campaign against him, he is reportedly in talks about getting back on cable news.