July Ratings: Fox News Surges to Third on All of Television, While MSNBC Extends Prime Time Winning Streak Over CNN
As Fox News extended its winning streak as the most-watched network on cable in both total viewers and in the key 25-54 age demographic, the network notched another milestone in July as it landed in third place on all of television during weekday prime time.
NBC and CBS scored more viewers than Fox News for the month, but were the only broadcast networks to do so as Fox managed to beat out stiff competition like ABC and Fox in terms of total viewership.
NBC averaged 2.88 million total viewers to lead all of television for the month, while CBS scored 2.78 million total viewers to land in second place. Both networks are available in some 19 million more households across the country than Fox News, which averaged 2.47 million total viewers for the month during weekday prime time.
ABC came in fourth place with 2.33 million average weekday prime time viewers, while Fox landed in fifth with 1.84 million viewers.
In the cable news race, Fox yet again beat CNN and MSNBC combined in total day and prime time viewers, scoring its 18th month in a row at number one in prime time on cable news.
MSNBC, meanwhile, continues to land in a solid second place in terms of overall prime time viewers and Rachel Maddow landed the fifth-most watched show on cable news for the month – the only non-Fox show in the top ten.
The Five, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and Jesse Watters Prime Time were the top three shows on cable news in July, respectively. Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, and Lawrence O’Donnell were the top-rated hosts on MSNBC, in that order, while Jake Tapper was CNN’s top-rated host — with the 26th highest-rated show overall.
MSNBC’s average prime time audience more than doubled CNN’s average total audience for July and beat CNN in prime time for the 68th month in a row. The network saw major boosts during the Jan. 6 hearings and continued to score the largest audience in cable news for the hearings in July.
CNN continues to beat MSNBC in the demo in both prime time and total day. While all three networks were down in the demo from July 2021, MSNBC saw the biggest drop landing at 84,000 total day demo viewers – a 19% decline from last year. CNN averaged 110,000 demo viewers, a drop of 15% from last year, while Fox News averaged 194,000 demo viewers – a 5% percent drop.
Fox was the only network to post gains from last July, as its total average day viewership was up 13%. CNN dropped 10% from last year, while MSNBC only lost 1% of total average viewers compared to last year.
Here are the total day averages in total viewers and the 25-54 category for the month of July
Total viewers:
CNN: 541,000
Fox 1.35 million
MSNBC: 765,000
25-54 Demo:
CNN: 110,000
Fox News: 194,000
MSNBC: 84,000
Here are the prime time averages — encompassing shows which air from 8-11 p.m. — in total viewers and the 25-54 demo for the month of July.
Total viewers:
CNN: 731,000
Fox News: 2.12 million
MSNBC: 1.30 million
25-54 Demo:
CNN: 159,000
Fox News: 292,000
MSNBC: 133,000
