Last week, for the first time in five years, MSNBC beat both Fox News and CNN in the primetime ratings race. It was a relative victory, given that the entire industry is in inexorable decline and the total addressable market these days is small and shrinking. (MSNBC won with an average of just over 1.5 million viewers, after all.) It’s also far too soon to know whether the ratings victory was an aberration brought on by a confluence of factors—Trump’s historic indictment, Tucker Carlson’s recent defenestration from Fox and CNN’s Chris Licht-fueled implosion—or a harbinger of what’s to come as liberals gird themselves for a reprise of 2020. 

In any event, the momentary shakeup is indicative of notable turmoil in the cable news landscape. Fox News, historically among the most-watched networks on cable and the most influential force in conservative media, has indeed struggled since Tucker’s ouster in late April, often barely outperforming MSNBC in prime time. Conventional wisdom posits that the right-wing juggernaut can endure the loss of any top-tier talent—it endured the loss of Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and Megyn Kelly—and, indeed, that may eventually prove to be the case. The network has yet to announce its new primetime lineup, though as I’ve reported in the past all signs point to Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters assuming leading roles.