Fox News Tops June And Q2 Viewership, But Plunge In Ratings Continues Across All Major Cable News Networks

Ted Johnson
·2 min read
10

Fox News topped the June viewership figures as well as the second quarter ratings, but all of the news networks continued to show steep declines in a post-election, post Donald Trump presidency news environment.

In primetime, Fox News topped with an average of 2.13 million viewers, compared to 1.31 million for MSNBC and 798,000 for CNN. Compared to the same month a year earlier, Fox News was off 42%, MSNBC was down 36% and CNN dropped 57%. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News drew an average of 329,000, down 50%; compared to 179,000 for CNN, falling 68%; and 166,000 for MSNBC, off by 48%.

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In total day, Fox News averaged 1.17 million in total viewers, down 35%; MSNBC posted 763,000, down 37% and CNN was at 580,000, down 49%. In the 25-54 demo, the numbers were 195,000 for Fox News, down 42%, 133,000 for CNN, falling 59% and 99,000 for MSNBC, dropping by 48%.

Tucker Carlson Tonight was the top show in cable news, averaging 2.81 million total viewers, followed by Hannity with 2.59 million, The Five with 2.53 million, The Rachel Maddow Show with 2.27 million and The Ingraham Angle with 2.09 million.

Tucker Carlson also topped the 25-54 demo with 463,000, followed by Hannity with 389,000, The Five with 357,000, The Ingraham Angle with 349,000 and The Rachel Maddow Show with 289,000.

Fox News also is pointing to the launch of Gutfeld! in April as a standout in the 11 PM ET timeslot, averaging 1.5 million viewers in the quarter to beat the competition on CNN and MSNBC in the timeslot. The show also has drawn more total viewers than other network late-night shows, albeit Gutfeld! doesn’t compete head-to-head on the West Coast, where it airs at 8 PM PT.

The figures are from Nielsen and were released via Fox News.

Meanwhile, Trump took aim at the news networks ratings decline, singling out figures who have been critics or, like Fox News’ Chris Wallace, have posed challenging questions in interviews. Trump wrote, “A wonderful thing to see!”

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