Weekly Cable Ratings: Trump Indictment Boosts Cable News Nets

R. Thomas Umstead
·1 min read
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Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis announces the indictment of former President Donald Trump on charges stemming from an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results on Aug. 14 in Atlanta..
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Former President Donald Trump’s August 14 indictment in Georgia on charges that he attempted to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state helped boost the weekly ratings fortunes for the cable news networks last week.

Fox News Channel and MSNBC both averaged 1.6 million viewers in primetime to lead all cable networks during the week of August 14 to August 20, according to Nielsen numbers supplied by Fox News. CNN finished in fifth place for the week with 770,000 viewers.

NFL Network was the third most-watched network in primetime with 1 million viewers, followed by HGTV’s 803,000 viewers. TLC finished sixth for the week with 755,000 viewers, followed by Hallmark Channel (699,000 viewers), ESPN (683,000), INSP (663,000), and USA Network (619,000).

The three cable news networks topped the total day chart, led by Fox News with 1.1 million viewers, followed by MSNBC’s 1 million viewers and CNN’s 551,000 watchers. ESPN (451,000) and HGTV (438,000) rounded out the top five most-watched networks for the week on a 24-hour basis, according to Nielsen.