Fox News Dominates Q3 Cable News Ratings As All Networks See Declines In Prime Time

Fox News Channel cruised to victory in third quarter cable news ratings, delivering an average prime time audience of 2.189 million viewers, easily outpacing MSNBC, which was a distant second with 1.277 million viewers and CNN, which was third overall with 717,000 viewers. Among viewers 25-54, the key demographic group valued by advertisers, Fox News was first in prime with 294,000 viewers, followed by CNN (150,000 viewers) and MSNBC (127,000 viewers).

All of the cable news networks saw ratings declines in prime time compared to one year ago, with CNN experiencing the largest drop, down 13%. Fox News was down 8%, and MSNBC was flat year over year. In the key demo, the declines were far more steep, with Fox News down 23%, MSNBC down 22% and CNN down 21%.

The highest-rated show for the third quarter was Fox News Channel’s The Five, which had an average total audience of 3.295 million viewers, and Fox swept the five most-watched shows with The Five followed by Tucker Carlson Tonight (3.153 million viewers), Jesse Watters Primetime (2.726 million viewers), Hannity (2.682 million viewers) and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.341 million viewers).

In the key demo, Fox News again took the top five most-watched shows, with Tucker Carlson Tonight finishing first with 468,000 viewers, followed by The Five (418,000 viewers), Hannity (358,000 viewers), Jesse Watters Primetime (342,000 viewers), and Gutfeld! (339,000 viewers).

MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, a regular top-five finisher, dropped from the list as Maddow moved to anchoring just one night a week. Her replacement at 9 p.m. ET, Alex Wagner Tonight, saw double digit declines for the network, losing 29% among total viewers and nearly 50% in the key demo.

The Five and Gutfeld! had noteworthy ratings delivery for the quarter, as both air outside of prime time, when viewership is typically the highest, with The Five airing in the afternoons and Gutfeld! in late night, where it has set ratings records and outperformed the broadcast networks’ late night shows.

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