News Ratings
Entertainment
Fox
News Channel Tops Basic Cable Quarter For First Time Ever
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| Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdock |
For the
first time in its nearly 20-year history, Fox News Channel clocked the biggest quarterly crowd in
basic cable, in primetime and in total day. In total day, FNC delivered its
highest rated quarter ever in total viewers.
In
outranking all other cable networks for the full quarter, FNC spent the past 10
consecutive weeks as the No. 1 cable channel in total day viewers.
The news
channel, which has spent the past 14 years outstripping its cable news
competition, this time bested all cable comers. In primetime, the network
logged 2.37M viewers (up 26%), and 483K of them falling into the key news demo
of viewers 25-54 years (up 50%). FNC’s total viewer take routed CNN’s
1.4M and MSNBC’s 888K. CNN jumped
a whopping 165% compared to same quarter last year, while MSNBC grew 66%.
Among 25-54 year olds, FNC edged out CNN’s 455K and bested MSNBC’s 226K. Here
too, CNN soared, by 143%, to MSNBC”s 71% spike.
In total
day, the network averaged 1.35M viewers (up 14%) and 271K news demo viewers
(up 23%). In overall audience, FNC’s total day tally bests CNN’s 732K and
MSNBC’s 502K combined. CNN is up 57% compared to first quarter of ’15 and MSNBC
is up 59%. In the news demo, FNC’s 271K edged out CNN’s 217K and MSNBC’s 131K.
MSNBC is up 54%, compared to CNN’s 48% gain and FNC’s 30%.
To get
there, FNC notched the Top 14 cable news programs in total viewers and nine of
the top 10 programs in the news demo. The
O’Reilly Factor at 8PM ET
continued as the most watched program in cable news and garnered its
highest-rated quarter in both total viewers (3.4M) and news demo (598K) since
2012. The Kelly File at 9PM ET delivered its most-watched
quarter since its launch in October 2013 (2.5M). They were closely followed by Special Report w/ Bret Baier (2.4M), The Five (2.3M), and On the Record w/ Greta Van
Susteren (2.1M). But FNC’s
Hannity was up the most among FNC primetime programs for the quarter in
total viewers (1,882,000, up 35%) and the demo (434,000, up 39%), delivering
its highest-rated quarter since the net re-configured its primetime in ’13.
Also in
the quarter, FNC logged top-rated primary debate of 2016, on March 3rd,
averaging 17 million viewers. The network delivered the highest-rated primary
night in cable news history on March 15th, with over 5M in total viewers for
coverage of the Michigan and Ohio
CNN,
meanwhile, bagged its most-watched quarter in total day in seven years, and
best primetime since 4Q 2008 in total viewers and the news demo. On the
weekends, CNN ranked No. 1 in the first quarter across cable news among those
viewers 25-54 in both total day and primetime. Of particular note, CNN narrowed
the gap with Fox News to the closest it’s been in at least seven years in both
total viewers and the news demo, in total day and in primetime. Fueling CNN’s
quarterly ratings hikes were its 12 debates and town halls in the first
quarter. MSNBC boosted its numbers with one debate and five town halls; FNC
telecast two debates and one town hall.
MSNBC, meanwhile focused its 1Q
ratings talk on its dayside gains for the quarter. In the daypart, the NBCU
cable news net scored its best quarter in three years, in total viewers and the
news demo. The network credits its shift to a renewed focus on breaking news in
the Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM daypart. And, Morning Joe clocked its best quarter ever for
MSNBC in the 6-9 AM timeslot.
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