The January ratings are in, and according to Nielsen Media Research data, Fox News has just broken a record: Fox News is now the highest-rated cable news channel for 20 years.
Notably, “The Five”The ratings success of the show continued. It ended the month as cable news’ most-watched program, which is unusual for a non-primetime channel. Tucker Carlson’s 8 p.m. ET was the juggernaut in the highly-coveted age group of 25-54.
Fox News was the number one cable news channel for primetime and total viewers in January. It is the cable news network with the highest viewing figures by both metrics, since 2002. “Fox & Friends”Steve Doocy, host on the Network, said in October last year that he began working with it 25 years ago. “it didn’t look good”The team was astonished “market leader”CNN was fierce competition. Five years later, CNN remained the dominant channel.
Here’s how the numbers for January break down, per Nielsen: Fox News nabbed 1.414 million total-day viewers, on average, with 226,000 of those in the key demo. MSNBC came in second in total average viewers with 656,000 viewers. But, MSNBC came in third in the demo with 74,000 viewers. CNN was last in total viewers with 493,000 viewers per hour, but second in demo with 101,000.
Fox News averaged 2.242million viewers during primetime. 338,000 of those were in the demo. MSNBC came in second place for total primetime viewers pulling in 1.15million, but was last in the demo, with 130,000. CNN averaged 633,000 viewers between 8 and 11 p.m. ET and 11:59 p.m. ET, 140,000 of whom were between 25 – 54.
Fox News was among the top five cable news programs by total viewership and demo viewership. In total average viewers, “The Five”With 3.573 Million, it was the leader. “Tucker Carlson Tonight”Averaged 3.414 millions “Hannity”Taken in 2.862 Million, “Special Report with Bret Baier”The average ET hour earned 2.616 millions and the 7 p.m. On average, ET hour earned 2.385 million “Jesse Watters Primetime”Premiered at 7 p.m. in the last week of January. Prior to Watters’ ascension to his own pre-primetime solo gig, the hour was helmed by rotating hosts. Watters’ program nabbed 3.3 million average viewers and 490,000 demo viewers, on average, in its first week.
The demo’s top five programs were “Tucker Carlson Tonight”An average of 560,000 viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, “The Five”With 504,000 “Hannity”With 433,000, the 7:m. ET hour with 388,000 “Special Report with Bret Baier”With 387,000. Watters’ first week hosting “Primetime”On average, 490,000 people watched the demo.
Fox News was also one of three major cable news networks that saw an increase in viewers per day year over year. Fox News had a 4% increase on total-day viewership over January 2021. MSNBC was at 60%, and CNN was down 74%. You will recall that January 2021 saw a lot of news coverage. President Donald Trump was impeached twice and Joe Biden was sworn-in.
Fox News, like its competitors, was down year over year in total-day demo averages, primetime total viewership and primetime demo averages, although its losses were less than CNN’s and MSNBC’s. Fox News’ total-day demo ratings were down 7% in January compared to last year. CNN was down 81%, while MSNBC was down 75%. Fox News’ primetime total viewership was down 12%. CNN was down 77%, MSNBC was down 56%. Final, primetime demo viewership was also down. Fox News was down 20% while CNN was down 82%, MSNBC was down 73%.