Fox News Crushes 2024 In the Cable News Ratings, CNN Notches An All-Time Low In The Demo
As 2024 winds down, Nielsen Media Research averages for cable news ratings cement an undeniable trend for the year: Fox News’s increasing dominance as MSNBC and CNN face an uncertain future.
Fox ended the year by extending its winning streak with a consecutive ninth year at number one in both total viewers and the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic. MSNBC landed in second place with total viewers and CNN scored second place in the key 25-54 demo – despite notching the lowest total day demo rating in its history. Both Fox News and MSNBC scored overall year-over-year increases in ratings, while CNN ticked up in every category except for the total day demo.
Fox grabbed over 55% of the total cable audience in prime time and 49% of total day viewers for the year, marking its largest audience share since 2015. In November, the network increased that share to an unprecedented 62% of the total viewership across the industry. Post-election, that number soared even higher as Fox News captured 72% of the cable news audience in prime time for the month’s second to last full week. MSNBC scored 16 percent, while CNN had 11 percent of cable news viewers during prime time.
Fox also dominated the major events surrounding the presidential election, topping broadcast news as well, which is in millions of more homes across the country. On election night the network brought in a whopping 13.6 million viewers and 4.4 million demo viewers to be the most-watched network on all of television. Nielsen found that Fox was also the most-watched network throughout the election in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A YouGov poll noted that Fox ranked as the number one news source for Independent voters throughout the election.
Donald Trump’s victory has since led to steep ratings declines for MSNBC and CNN as MSNBC has seen some 61% of its demo viewers tune out post-election, dropping to only 57,000 average viewers in prime time. CNN’s prime time demo is down 52% since the election, averaging only 77,000. MSNBC’s total prime time haul is down 55% with an average of 620,000 viewers, while CNN is down 45% to 405,000 viewers.
Fox News ends the year with an average of 2.4 million prime time viewers, a 31% increase from last year, and 298,000 demo viewers – up 42% year over year. CNN is also up 21% in the total average for the year with 700,000 prime time viewers and 151,000 prime time demo viewers – up 21%. MSNBC is up 5% for the year with 1.25 million average prime time viewers and 137,000 demo viewers – up 13%.
In total day, Fox scored 1.46 million viewers, up 21%, and 187,000 demo viewers – up 26%. CNN averaged 488,000 total day viewers, up 3% from last year, and 92,000 demo viewers, which is a 1% drop. CNN registered its lowest-ever total day demo number last year with 94,000 viewers, making this year its new low in the key category.
MSNBC ended the year up in total day viewers with a 5% increase to 807,000 average viewers and 86,000 demo viewers – up 1%.
As far as programming, Fox ends the year with the top 12 shows: The Five, Jesse Watters Primetime, Hannity, Gutfeld!, The Ingraham Angle, Special Report with Bret Baier, Outnumbered, The Faulkner Focus, America’s Newsroom with Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer, America Reports with John Roberts and Sandra Smith, The Story with Martha MacCallum, and Your World with Neil Cavuto. In the demo, Fox has the top 14 programs, with Gutfeld! leading the pack for the year and topping its broadcast late-night competition.
Fox’s long-dominant top show, The Five, notched its third straight year at number one on cable news, and became the first non-prime time program to score over 4 million average viewers for the quarter – its highest-rated quarter ever.
Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott commented on her network’s besting of the competition this year, saying in a statement, “Throughout coverage of a tumultuous political cycle, wars in the Middle East and major breaking news events, millions of viewers across the political spectrum continued to tune into FOX News Channel for our unrivaled reporting and analysis. I am extremely proud of our entire team for proving once again why we are the nation’s most-watched network as we outpaced the competition in covering the stories that mattered most to everyday Americans.”