Weekly Cable Ratings: ESPN, Fox News Battle for Top Spot in Primetime

R. Thomas Umstead
·1 min read
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Attendees of Nikki Haley's 2020 Iowa Caucus party watch Fox News.
Attendees of Nikki Haley's 2020 Iowa Caucus party watch Fox News.

Fox News Channel barely held off ESPN for primetime basic-cable ratings honors last week as both networks drew more than 2 million viewers.

Fox News, led by its coverage of the January 16 Iowa Caucuses, averaged 2.09 million viewers in primetime for the week of January 15 to January 21, besting ESPN’s 2.05 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers provided by Fox News.

MSNBC finished third with 1 million viewers, followed by HGTV’s 887,000 and TBS’ 713,000 watchers. History was sixth with 685,000, followed by Hallmark Channel (679,000), TNT (623,000), INSP (583,000) and CNN (542,000).

On the total-day chart, Fox News drew 1.3 million viewers, followed by ESPN (970,000 viewers), MSNBC (745,000), HGTV (466,000) and CNN (434,000), said Nielsen.