The Lead
Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker featured an exclusive interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, and that led NBC News to a ratings win in the key Adults 25-54 demographic.
Zelenskyy has been a key figure in the news media realm in recent weeks after drawing the ire of President Donald Trump. Additionally, a U.S. delegation, including Vice President JD Vance, has met with the Ukrainian leader as negotiations of a peace agreement between the nation and Russia continues.
More than 480,000 viewers in the Adults 25-54 demographic tuned into the NBC News program on Sunday, February 16th. That topped challenges from CBS News and Face the Nation (435,000 viewers), ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos (419,000 viewers), and Fox News Sunday (302,000), helmed by Shannon Bream.
The 480,000 viewers seen by NBC News represents a 25% year-over-year increase compared to the same week in 2024. Additionally, the network notes that Meet the Press has never lost a month in the local Washington D.C. market in total viewers.
In the total viewer category, the week was won by Face the Nation, which earned just under 3 million viewers. Meet the Press finished in third place behind the Stephanopoulos-led show, as ABC News featured an average audience of 2,645,000 viewers compared to the 2,637,000 viewers the NBC News show saw.
In total, Meet the Press saw a just over 2% increase in its key demographic viewership during the episode featuring Volodymyr Zelenskyy compared to the previous Sunday. In the total viewers sector, NBC News saw a 7% increase compared to the Sunday, February 9th edition of the long-running network news program.
MSNBC, CNN Slip Slightly in February
MSNBC and CNN saw a slight week-to-week dip in the ratings for the week of February 10th.
In primetime, MSNBC dropped from an average of 1.2 million viewers to just over 1.1 million. It also dropped from the second most-watched cable network in the 8-11 PM ET timeslot down to fourth behind TNT and ESPN. Those two networks featured prominent sports events as the NHL’s Four Nations Faceoff featured the best players from the United States, Canada, Finland, and Sweden in primetime matchups.
Meanwhile, CNN also saw a slight week-to-week decline. Previously, the network averaged a total primetime audience of 508,000 viewers. During the week of February 10th, it averaged 487,000. That finish earned it 11th place in the overall cable ratings, down from seventh the previous week.
Fox News continued its dominance in the cable realm, earning the top spot in both the total day (2 million viewers) and primetime (3 million viewers) categories.
Newsmax finished in 19th place in primetime, averaging 312,000 viewers. It was also 19th in total day viewers with an average audience of 215,000. NewsNation was 55th in primetime, averaging 102,000 viewers, dropping to 62nd in total day ratings with 58,000 tuning into the Nexstar Media Group-owned outlet.
For the week, Fox News garnered 60% of the primetime cable news audience, while MSNBC (22%), and CNN (10%) took home the top three positions. Newsmax earned 6% of the audience, while NewsNation finished with 2%.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
