The Lead
Fox News has long been a cable news juggernaut. That has been on display since Election Day as the network continues a strong performance in the ratings.
During the week of Thanksgiving, Fox News reached new heights in the Adults 25-54 demographic, as it earned 70% of the total cable news audience in the demo. CNN featured 18%, while MSNBC dropped to 12% in the total day category.
For the week overall, 98 of the top 100 cable news broadcasts were seen on Fox News.
The Five from Fox News led the cable news ratings for the week with an average of 4.1 million viewers. Jesse Watters Primetime earned 3.5 million viewers while The Ingraham Angle (3.1 million), Special Report with Bret Baier (2.9 million), and Hannity (2.7 million) also saw strong ratings performances.
Newsmax Scores, CNN and MSNBC Stumble
Elsewhere in the cable news ratings, Newsmax had reason to celebrate. Rob Schmitt Tonight, the network’s 7 PM ET show — featured an audience of 509,000 viewers on Monday, besting CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront, which saw 484,000 total viewers. Newsmax also saw it’s primetime offerings of Finnerty — hosted by Rob Finnerty — within striking distance of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, and Greg Kelly Reports earning similar ratings to The Source with Kaitlan Collins, also from CNN.
Ratings drop-offs for CNN and MSNBC continued, as both are featuring lows not seen in decades. In primetime, CNN featured an average of 297,000 viewers for the week, a low that hasn’t been seen in nearly 30 years. CNN’s total day audience averaged 268,000 viewers, a low since 2001. Meanwhile, MSNBC saw its ratings in the Adults 25-54 demographic drop to 37,000 viewers in primetime and 29,000 in the total day ratings for the week. Those figures are the lowest seen since 1997.
ABC News vs. NBC News
In the network nightly news ratings, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remained ahead of NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
During the week of November 25th, the Muir-led program saw an average audience of 7.7 million viewers. Meanwhile, Holt’s Nightly News averaged 6.2 million, while CBS Evening News — anchored by Norah O’Donnell, who will leave the program in January — averaged an audience of 4.4 million.
The race between the ABC News program and the NBC News show is much tighter in the Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 demographics, however. World News Tonight (1 million viewers) still beats NBC Nightly News (934,000 viewers) in the 25-54 demo, with an even closer margin in the 18-49 demo with 703,000 viewers for ABC compared to 639,000 viewers for NBC.
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