Fox News Hits 23rd Consecutive Month As Most-Watched In Cable News As CNN Sees Gains In January

Fox News Channel cruised to victory in the January cable news ratings race, dominating the competition and marking the network’s 23rd consecutive month at number one. In prime time, Fox delivered an average total audience of 1.945 million viewers, nearly twice that of MSNBC (1.047 million viewers), and far ahead of CNN, which didn’t break the one million mark—delivering a prime time audience of just 629,000 total viewers.

All of the cable news networks saw declines in January compared to the same month one year ago, with Fox News dropping 13% in prime, compared to MSNBC’s 9% decline and CNN’s 1%. While CNN has had little to brag about when it comes to ratings lately, the network did manage to buck the trend with a small gain among viewers 25-54, the demographic group most valued by advertisers. CNN grew by 3% in the prime time key demo, while MSNBC dropped 16% and Fox News fell 29%.

The month’s most-watched shows were all on Fox News, with The Five once again grabbing the title of highest-rated show in cable news with an average total audience of 3.378 million viewers. Tucker Carlson Tonight was second with 3.188 million viewers, followed by Jesse Watters Primetime (2.836 million viewers), Hannity (2.568 million viewers), and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.406 million viewers).

In the key demo, Tucker Carlson Tonight finished first with a total audience of 448,000 viewers, followed by The Five (379,000 viewers), Jesse Watters Primetime (319,000 viewers), Hannity (307,000 viewers) and the network’s late night show, Gutfeld! (301,000 viewers).

For total day ratings, Fox News finished first with an average total audience of 1.349 million viewers (down 4% from January 2022), followed by MSNBC (703,000 viewers—up 7%) and CNN (524,000 viewers—up 7%), all according to ratings data compiled by Nielsen. In the key demo, FNC was first with 173,000 viewers (down 23%), followed by CNN (107,000 viewers—up 7%) and MSNBC (78,000 viewers—up 5%).

The recently-launched CNN This Morning continued to struggle in January, delivering a total audience of 372,000 viewers, far behind top-rated Fox & Friends, which had an average total audience of 1.2 million viewers.