Newsmax TV

In May 2014, U.S. news organization Newsmax Media announced that it had signed a distribution deal with DirecTV and would launch a national television news channel to compete directly with CNN, Fox News, and other American news networks. It was launched to provide independent news; its founder, Chris Ruddy described it as intended to be a “kinder, gentler Fox News,” saying that “Our goal is to be a little more boomer-oriented, more information-based rather than being vituperative and polarizing.”[9]

On January 16, 2016, Dennis Michael Lynch: Unfiltered debuted on the channel.[11] The program ended after the first segment of the August 10, 2016, episode after Lynch announced that he would resign from the network and made comments defending Fox News Channel and criticizing his network for its reporting of the Trump campaign and suggesting they were restricting his editorial control; he was escorted out from the network's New York studio during what would have been the first commercial break.[12][13] It was replaced the next Monday with an hour-long video simulcast of radio's The Howie Carr Show from WRKO in Boston.[14]

The network launched Spicer & Co. on March 3, 2020, featuring former Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and co-host Lyndsay Keith,[15] followed by Greg Kelly Reports with former FNC White House correspondent and host of WNYW's Good Day New York, Greg Kelly.[16] The network's overnight programming is mainly made up of conservative documentaries.

During the 2020 United States presidential election, then-President Trump began to promote Newsmax over rival competitor Fox News.[6][17][18] Trump's preference for Newsmax over Fox News became clearer after the latter became the first news outlet to call Arizona for Democratic challenger Joe Biden.[19] Newsmax has made their more conservative leanings a selling point to disaffected Fox News viewers, as well as employing Fox News alumni to join their lineup on Newsmax TV, such as Rob Schmitt and Greg Kelly.[19][20][21]

After the election was won by Democrat Joe Biden, Newsmax struck a defiant tone, focusing on conspiracy theories and baseless allegations of voter fraud as a way to attract Fox News viewers angered by what they saw as insufficient loyalty to Trump.[1][2][3] Emily VanDerWerff of Vox reported that the outlet did not "go full arch-conservative" and "doesn't give airtime to QAnon paranoiacs", but that it "spent lots of time arguing that other media outlets jumped the gun in calling the election for Biden and that Trump still has a path to win this thing."[22]

CNN's Brian Stelter, in an on-air interview, asked Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy why the network chose to air "election denialism" and "bogus voter fraud stuff," to which Ruddy replied that the network featured all points of view and argued that all of the other major news outlets who had reported Biden’s election win were “rushing”.[23]

Since the election, Newsmax has seen increasing viewership; according to Nielsen, Newsmax averaged 182,000 viewers in the week leading up to the election. In the week that followed, the average increased further with daily averages around 400,000 viewers, with Greg Kelly Reports and Spicer & Co. having attracted numbers in the 700,000-800,000 range.[24] On December 7, 2020, Greg Kelly Reports beat its timeslot competitor on Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, in average key demographic viewership for the first time (229,000 to 203,000), while Stelter observed that overall the program "has nearly a million viewers on a good night".[25]

• John Bachman: Host of John Bachman Now
• Tom Basile: Host of America Right Now
• Nancy Brinker: Host of Conversations with Nancy Brinker
• Howie Carr: Host of The Howie Carr Show
• Diamond and Silk: Hosts of Diamond and Silk Crystal Clear
• Mark Halperin: Host of Mark Halperin’s Focus Group
• Carl Higbie: Host of Saturday Report
• Mike Huckabee: Host of Huckabee (shared with TBN)
• Benny Johnson: Host of The Benny Report
• Greg Kelly: Host of Greg Kelly Reports
• Michelle Malkin: Host of Michelle Malkin Sovereign Nation and former host of Michelle Malkin Investigates
• Bob Sellers: Co-host of American Agenda
• Rob Schmitt: Host of Rob Schmitt Tonight
• Sean Spicer: Co-host of Spicer & Co.
• Chris Salcedo: Host of The Chris Salcedo Show

• Heather Childers: Co-host of American Agenda

• Alan Dershowitz
• Alison Maloni
• Betsy McCaughey
• Michael Reagan
• Trish Regan
• Christopher Ruddy
• Craig Shirley[26]
• Heather Zumarraga

• Steve Bannon – Former host of War Room
• Ed Berliner – Former host of Midpoint with Ed Berliner and The Hard Line with Ed Berliner
• Herman Cain – Was slated to host a show for Newsmax TV but died of coronavirus disease before making it to series[27]
• J. D. Hayworth – Former host of Newsmax Prime
• Dennis Michael Lynch – Former host of Dennis Michael Lynch: Unfiltered
• Steve Malzberg – Former host of America Talks Live and The Steve Malzberg Show
• Bill O'Reilly – Host of No Spin News with Bill O'Reilly (since moved to The First)
• Joe Pags – Host of The Joe Pags Show (now radio-only)
• Jesse Lee Peterson – Host of The Jesse Lee Peterson Show (now radio-only)
• Wayne Allyn Root – Host of The Wayne Allyn Root Show (now radio-only)
• Todd Schnitt – Host of The Schnitt Show
• Ben Swann – Former fill-in host of The Steve Malzberg Show