Cable News Wars: Inside the Unprecedented Battle for Viewers in Trump Era

In this endless cycle of breaking political headlines, television news is facing its biggest moment of opportunity since Fox News Channel and MSNBC came on the scene 21 years ago. The competitive fervor among the Big Three to turn these added eyeballs into regular viewers is further stoked by the fact that the longtime market leader — Fox News — is vulnerable after a year of turmoil on both sides of the camera. The pervasiveness of headlines and commentary online and on social media platforms has unquestionably stepped up the tempo for cable news.

“We are just working at a different pace now,” says Bret Baier, Fox News' chielf political anchor. “It’s not just this administration but our society. People are now used to absorbing things in a nanosecond, and they expect their 24-hour cable news to be as fast as they are.”