71 out of 100 top-rated cable shows in November were on Fox News; none on CNN, MSNBC

Fox News continued to dominate cable broadcasts in the month of November, notching 71 of the top 100 shows, according to the latest Nielsen Media Research figures.

By comparison, neither CNN nor MSNBC had any programs in the top 100, and in fact, both networks are continuing to shed viewers.

In fact, according to Nielsen, the top five cable programs were all Fox News offerings, in terms of daily average viewers:  Tucker Carlson Tonight (3,667,000), The Five (3,512,000) Hannity (3,234,000), Special Report with Bret Baier (2,768,000), and The Ingraham Angle (2,657,000).

In addition, those same programs scored the highest number of viewers between the ages of 25-54, the most coveted demographic: Tucker Carlson Tonight (651,000), The Five (557,000), Hannity (541,000), Special Report with Bret Baier (475,000), and The Ingraham Angle (469,000).

By comparison, none of CNN’s programming nor any offered by MSNBC broke 1 million daily viewers, on average. In fact, they weren’t even close, according to Nielsen. Furthermore, while all three networks lost viewers year over year, Fox News’ viewership declined the least.

TOTAL DAY

FNC: 1,544,000 total viewers – down 20% (264,000 in 25-54 – down 36%)

CNN: 495,000 total viewers – down 72% (108,000 in 25-54 – down 81%)

MSNBC: 660,000 total viewers – down 58% (78,000 in 25-54 – down 74%)

PRIMETIME

FNC: 2,578,000 total viewers – down 35% (420,000 in 25-54 – down 49%)

CNN: 654,000 total viewers – down 77% (148,000 in 25-54 – down 84%)

MSNBC: 1,091,000 total viewers – down 59% (140,000 in 25-54 – down 74%)

One of the newest Fox offerings, the late-night “Gutfeld!” starring Greg Gutfeld, also beat out all other late-night programming in the same time slots in terms of total average viewers.

“Greg Gutfeld’s late-night program Gutfeld! finished November as the number one rated show in all of basic cable television in total viewers at 11 PM/ET, and ranked in the top 10 overall with 1,983,000 viewers, 388,000 with A25-54 demo and 260,000 in 18-49 demo,” Nielsen noted in a press release.

Gutfeld! topped ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! in both categories and NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in total viewers,” the release continued. “In addition to surpassing every CNN program in total viewers for the month, Gutfeld! also beat every show on MSNBC in all categories including The Rachel Maddow Show for the first time since launch.

“In fact, this was the lowest-rated month in P2+ The Rachel Maddow Show has delivered in 2021. Since it debuted, Gutfeld! has continued to increase viewership among all categories each month, posting gains in total viewers (+7%), A25-54 (+14%) and A18-49(+20%) this month versus October 2021,” the release continued.

Another notable: Cuomo Prime Time, CNN’s offering, scored its lowest-rated month ever. The just-suspended host, Chris Cuomo, only drew an average of 774,000 viewers and just 170,000 in the 25-54 demo.

Fox News has been outpacing both CNN and MSNBC throughout the year. In October, CNN’s town hall featuring President Joe Biden was a good evening for the network in terms of viewers, but the program still lost out to Fox’s Tucker Carlson.

“For context in the cable news race, an average of 2.83 million viewers watched Fox News’s Tucker Carlson (8 p.m.) and the first half of Sean Hannity (9 p.m.),” The Hill’s media analyst Joe Concha, also a Fox News analyst, noted. “That’s more than 1.6 million more viewers.”

“Meanwhile, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes (8 p.m.) and Rachel Maddow (9 p.m.) attracted an average of 1.39 million viewers in taking second place,” he added.

“Biden drew 3.4 million viewers during his first town hall as president on CNN in February. Thursday night’s audience, marking more than a 60 percent drop,” Concha noted further.

Jon Dougherty

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles