Fox News Scores Record Share of Total Cable News Audience As CNN And MSNBC Lose Viewers Post-Election
The 2024 election season brought surging ratings to Fox News as it dominated the competition and scored a record share of the overall cable news audience while marking its 45th straight month at number one.
In November, Fox News accounted for an unprecedented 62% of the total viewership across the industry, according to Nielsen Media Research. Post-election that number soared as Fox News captured 73% of the cable news audience in prime time for the second to last full week of the month. MSNBC scored 16 percent, while CNN had 11 percent of cable news viewers during prime time.
After the election, MSNBC was down some 47% in total viewers and CNN was down 33%. Both networks still posted year-over-year gains for the month as a whole as ratings peaked during the election itself. In prime time, MSNBC lost 52% of its viewers, while CNN dropped 39% of its prime time audience as viewers tuned out after President-elect Donald Trump’s win.
Fox, meanwhile, surged 86% in prime time total viewers and 147% in the key 25-54 age demographic, averaging 3.2 million and 476,000 viewers – respectively for the month. CNN ended the month with an average of 725,000 total prime time viewers and 196,000 prime time demo viewers. MSNBC averaged 1.1 million prime time viewers and 161,000 in the demo.
The news for MSNBC is not all bleak, however, as the network is on pace to score its most-watched year since 2021, continues to post growth in the quarter, and has established an undeniable edge over CNN during major events. CNN too is up year-over-year in November as the election boosted ratings 17% in the demo and 2% in total viewers compared to last year.
Fox scored the top 14 shows for the month, with The Five coming in at number one with 4.4 million average viewers. Jesse Watters Primetime landed in second place with 3.9 million, The Ingraham Angle in third with 3.32 million, Gutfeld! in fourth with 3.3 million, and Bret Baier’s Special Report rounded out the top five with 3.26 million total viewers.
Nielsen MRI Fusion data also showed Fox News also remained the most watched network overall among Independents and Democrats as well as Asians, Hispanics, and high-earning viewers throughout total day.
Nicolle Wallace scored the top non-Fox News show on cable news, averaging 1.4 million total viewers in her 5 to 6 pm hour. Lawrence O’Donnell was second on MSNBC with 1.2 million viewers. CNN’s top show, meanwhile, was Erin Burnett’s OutFront with 680,000 average total viewers.
Cable news upstart NewsNation also scored its highest-rated month to date and beat out longstanding networks like HLN, Fox Business, and CNBC in prime time for the month.
