Fox News Dominates Cable Ratings - Again

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News Ratings

Entertainment

Fox News Channel Tops Basic Cable Quarter For First Time Ever

Lisa de Moraes,

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 primary results, topping both MSNBC and CNN.

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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Fox News Blows Out News Competitors, Dominate Cable

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Surprise, surprise, Roger Ailes, that demon to all liberals in America, once again simply trounced all the other cable news shows through the entire prime time slot according to the latest October cable news ratings.

So dominant was Fox that Megyn Kelly's brand new show finished the October sweeps number two of all prime time cable news shows, behind The O'Reilly Factor.  Nice launch Megyn.

 

Is there any wonder which of the following news personalities had a higher rating than the other two combined?

 

Now I confess, that is not how Megyn looks on her new show.  Neither is the fact that another "Fox" is on Fox.  She was a jock and cheerleader in school.  But she also was smart, had a law degree, was a ratings magnet and asked for the job.  Here is the "on air" look.

 

 

As the following "ratings" articles show, the Fox prime time shows (7 to 11 PM) had 2.12 million average viewers, more than all their competitors (CNN, MSNBC and HLN) combined.  Whew!

Okay, no big surprise since Fox has been #1 in total daytime and prime time cable for the past 141 straight months.  That is #1 for the entire presidential career of Barack Obama and dating all the way back to 2001, the year of the World Trade Center 9/11 attacks.

Here are articles describing the latest October sweeps.

Fox Tops October Cable News Ratings With Revamped Primetime; ‘The Kelly File’ Ends First Month In No. 2 Spot Behind O’Reilly

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday October 29, 2013 @ 12:00pm PDTTags: CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, TV Ratings

A month ago Megyn Kelly didn’t have a primetime gig, but now The Kelly File is the No. 2 show on cable news after The O’Reilly Factor. Since its October 7 launch with Fox News’ primetime revamp, the new show has averaged 2.23 million total viewers and 383,000 viewers among adults 25-54 in its 9 PM slot. That’s behind its Bill O’Reilly lead-in (2.84 million and 458,000) and in front of The Five (2.14 million and 369,000). No big surprise that after 141 months at No. 1 in total day and primetime among the cable news networks, FNC won the October ratings battle. Still, it did have nine of the top 10 shows on cable news, with only MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show breaking the monolith at No. 9. FNC also came in at the No. 3 behind TBS and ESPN in cable overall in primetime for the month. News rivals MSNBC, CNN and HLN were far behind at No. 22, No. 33 and No. 45, respectively. Overall, with 2.12 million watching, FNC had more viewers during its new 7-11 PM primetime than CNN (627,000), MSNBC (991,000) and HLN (247,000) put together.

Looking at the ratings for 7 PM to 11 PM since its primetime relaunch versus Q3 2013, FNC is up 22% in total viewers (2.15 million) and 20% in the 25-54 demo (373,000). In primetime MSNBC saw a strong 59% viewership rise (to 976,000) and a 38% demo rise (237,000). After cratering earlier this year, the now-ratings-rebuilding NBCU-owned network certainly was helped this month by a series of well-received specials and docs plus the October 11 launch of the heavily promoted Up Late With Alec Baldwin. CNN saw a small bop of 7% in viewership (569,000) and 1% demo growth (171,000) when compared to Q3 2013. That’s in contrast to last October when all of the cable news networks saw viewership and demo surges with all-election-all-the-time coverage as the presidential race entered the final stretch. FNC actually was No. 1 in all of primetime cable. That once-every-four-years anomaly now has FNC, CNN and MSNBC and all down double digits from last October.

 

 

CNN’s Relaunched ‘Crossfire’ Hits Viewer & Demo Low

By DOMINIC PATTEN 13 hours ago

CNN’s Relaunched ‘Crossfire’ Hits Viewer & Demo Low

Looks like troubles come in threes for CNN lately. First the cable news company had its worst single primetime in over a year on October 30, then it had its worst week since Jeff Zucker took over and now the relaunched Crossfire has hit new lows. Resuscitated on September 9 after eight years off the air, the political debate show pulled in just 233,00 viewers overall and a mere 59,000 among adults 25-54 between 6:30 PM and 7 PM on Monday. Full-hour time-slot rivals on Fox News Channel and MSNBC did a lot better — to put it mildly. FNC’s Special Report had 2.44 million viewers with 411,000 in the key news demo, while MSNBC’s Al Sharpton-hosted PoliticsNation had 707,000 total viewers and 170,000 among the 25-54s.

Related: CNN Falls To Lowest Daily Primetime In Over A Year
Monday’s results represent a significant drop from the October 3 high the Newt Gingrich, Stephanie Cutter, S.E. Cupp and Van Jones hosted show hit with 891,000 total viewers and 326,000 in the demo. Crossfire’s previous viewership low was on October 25 when it had 251,000 total viewers. The previous demo low was on September 20 when it drew just 66,000 viewers among adults 25-54. The September 9 debut of the show earlier this year had a modest 581,000 viewers and 171,000 in the demo.