Beth Ailes, the widow of former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, appeared on Newsmax Tuesday evening and had harsh criticism for the cable network her husband helped build.
During Eric Bolling The Balance, Ailes argued that Fox News has experienced a loss in viewership due to the upstart Newsmax.
“I think that a lot of the audience has left and that’s because there’s no more Eric Bolling, there is no more Bill O’Reilly, there’s no Greta (Van Susteren). Where is everybody? They’re on Newsmax,” said Ailes. “They have other places to go. There are other ways to get the news and frankly, I think that Fox — like the other mainstream news channels — are boring. They repeat the same thing every hour.”
In July, Fox News was the top-rated basic cable channel in primetime, featuring an average of 1.57 million viewers. In total day viewers, the network saw just over 1 million on average. However, those figures represent a 26% drop compared to July 2022.
It isn’t the first time Ailes has been critical of her husband’s former network. Earlier this year, on his birthday, Ailes tweeted a photo of her husband applauding him for building up the cable giant before saying it only took “6 years for the Murdochs to wreak havoc. Rupert thought he could do your job. What a joke. He has the checkbook but could never come close to your genius.”
Roger Ailes left Fox News in disgrace in 2016 after multiple allegations of sexual harassment by employees were uncovered. He died in 2017. Bolling, like Ailes, also departed Fox News due to sexual misconduct allegations. He has continually denied those claims.
