The Lead
Last week, President Donald Trump announced a new tariff plan that ended up wreaking havoc on the financial markets. While CNBC and Fox Business Network each saw an increase in viewership, so did MSNBC, as the network earned its top ratings of the year thus far.
For the week of March 31st, MSNBC averaged 1.237 million viewers in the primetime window. That’s a marked improvement over the first quarter average for the network, which finished the first three months of 2025 at just over 1 million viewers.
The previous primetime high for MSNBC was the final week of February. The network earned 1.220 million viewers that week.
To begin 2025, MSNBC was mired in a ratings slump following the election of Donald Trump in early November last year. In the first two weeks of January, the network failed to eclipse 800,000 total viewers in primetime. It averaged just under 740,000 total primetime viewers during the first two weeks of the calendar year.
The network also saw its highest total day ratings of 2025 during the week of March 31st. For the week, MSNBC averaged 701,000 total viewers, besting its previous high of 690,000 viewers the week following the inauguration of Donald Trump. The results mark three consecutive weeks of total growth for the network, as it featured 609,000 viewers the week of March 17th and 628,000 viewers in the total day ratings the preceding weeks.
CNN Sees Best Primetime Audience Since Trump’s Congressional Speech
Elsewhere, CNN had its best week since President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress — which was technically not a State of the Union speech — during the first week of March.
The network averaged 572,000 total viewers in the primetime window for the week of March 31st. The week of Trump’s speech to Congress, CNN averaged 716,000 total viewers in the daypart. Since then, it had featured 571,000 (week of March 10th); 523,000 (week of March 17th); and 553,000 (week of March 24th).
Additionally, the week of March 31st saw CNN earn another primetime win in the key Adults 25-54 demographic over MSNBC. During the first three months of 2025, CNN has topped MSNBC in the pivotal demographic nine of the 13 weeks.
During the week of March 31st, Fox News stayed relatively steady in the primetime figures. The network averaged 2.802 million total viewers for the week. That was up slightly from the 2.792 million it featured in the previous window. In the key demo, Fox News also saw slight week-over-week growth, up to 334,000 from the 323,000 viewers it featured during the week of March 24th.
This Week with George Stephanopoulos Earns Top Spot in Key Demo for 1st Time in 2025
The race in the Sunday political affairs show space continues to be a tight one. But ABC News has reason to celebrate as This Week with George Stephanopoulos earned the top spot in the key Adults 25-54 demographic this past Sunday for the first time in 2025.
On Sunday, April 6th, the Stephanopoulos-led show earned 457,000 viewers from the key demographic. That bested CBS News’ Face the Nation (415,000 viewers), NBC News’ Meet the Press (414,000 viewers) and FOX News Sunday (236,000 viewers).
Despite it being the first key demographic win of the year for ABC News, it wasn’t the highest audience from the sector thus far. During the week of February 9th, 282,000 viewers from the demo watched the program. Additionally, the final week of January — January 26th — saw 472,000 viewers from the coveted demographic tune into the ABC News program.
While This Week with George Stephanopoulos won the key demographic, CBS News’ Face the Nation — helmed by Margaret Brennan — earned the most overall viewers. That show featured just under 2.9 million viewers for the week, besting This Week (2.7 million), and Meet the Press (2.3 million).
FOX News Sunday was well behind its competitors, featuring an average audience of 1.2 million viewers for the week.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
