“The Masked Singer” returned to Fox last night with dismal ratings.
The show scored just 5.4 million viewers vs. a season average last spring of 7 million. They’re down 22 percent. Compared to last season’s series premiere, it’s a 44% drop. (The 2nd season premiere, just this last February, had a whopping 23 million viewers following the Super Bowl. The show calmed down the next week to the 7 million average.)
Some could say it was the “America’s Got Talent” finale on NBC that did in “Masked Singer.” But the Fox show actually won its hour at 8pm.
No, the overall loss in viewers is absolutely attributable to Cannon’s scandal last month when he backed Louis Farrakhan and made anti-Semitic remarks. He was immediately fired by Viacom and MTV/VH-1. Fox thought it wouldn;t make a difference to their audience but apparently it did.
The only saving grace is that among those 5.4 million viewers, the key demo was very high, especially among women. But the drop in viewers is notable.
