CNN Hits 10-Year Low As Fox News Glides To Victory In Cable News Ratings

February marked CNN’s lowest-rated month in a decade, with the network’s prime time lineup dropping 42% among viewers 25-54—the key demographic group valued by advertisers—compared to the same month one year ago. CNN drew an average prime time audience of 122,000 viewers in the key demo, compared to Fox News Channel’s 299,000 viewers (down 33%). MSNBC was third overall with 119,000 viewers (down 15%).

Among total viewers, Fox News dominated prime time with 2.262 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (1.165 million viewers) and CNN (587,000 viewers). All of the networks saw year-over-year declines, with CNN down the most at 24%. Fox News was down 14% and MSNBC declined the least, down 2%.

Fox News had 94 of the 100 most-watched telecasts in February, which marked two consecutive years as the highest-rated network in cable news, among both total viewers and viewers in the key demo.

The most-watched show in cable news for the month was FNC’s The Five, which drew an average total audience of 3.310 million viewers, followed by Tucker Carlson Tonight (3.303 million viewers), Jesse Watters Primetime (2.833 million viewers), Hannity (2.684 million viewers), and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.439 million viewers)—all airing on the Fox News Channel.

In the key demo, Tucker Carlson Tonight finished the month in first place with an average audience of 461,000 viewers, followed by The Five (371,000 viewers), Hannity (355,000 viewers), Gutfeld! (322,000 viewers), and Jesse Watters Primetime (314,000 viewers)—all airing on Fox News.

For full day ratings, Fox News easily won the month with an average total audience of 1.437 million viewers (down 14% from one year ago), followed by MSNBC (711,000 viewers, down just 1%) and CNN (474,000 viewers, down 24%). In the key demo, Fox News finished first with 189,000 viewers (down 35% from a year ago), followed by CNN (89,000 viewers, down 41%) and MSNBC (80,000 viewers, down 6%).

CNN’s struggling morning show, CNN This Morning, averaged 360,000 total viewers and just 73,000 viewers in the key demo in February, the show’s lowest-rated month since its launch last fall. Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends cruised to a first-place finish for the month with 1.2 million total viewers and 170,000 viewers in the key demo.

The show debuted in November to ratings lower than the show it replaced, New Day, and has failed to make much traction since then, with critics noting that instead of chemistry, the hosts—Kaitlan Collins, Don Lemon and Poppy Harlow—often talk over each other. The show also suffered from Lemon making sexist comments in a discussion of Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s age, saying Haley “isn’t in her prime” at 51 because women are “considered to be in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”

Lemon apologized off-air, but his remarks led CNN chief executive Chris Licht to tell staff “I sat down with Don and had a frank and meaningful conversation,” Licht said in an internal memo. “He has agreed to participate in formal training, as well as continuing to listen and learn. We take this situation very seriously.”