Fox News Romps Cable Competition in February, Scores 35% More Viewers Than CNN and MS NOW Combined

Image via Fox News

Led Zeppelin’s “The Song Remains the Same” is a fitting soundtrack to the cable news ratings battle, because Fox News once again smoked its competition in February.

New Nielsen data obtained by Mediaite shows Fox News averaged 34% more primetime viewers and 35% more total day viewers than CNN and MS NOW combined this month.

Fox News averaged 2.61 million primetime viewers between Monday and Sunday — compared to 1.94 million for both CNN and MS NOW — and that figure jumped to 3.07 million viewers when just looking at primetime viewership during the week. Something else that stood out from the Nielsen data: Fox News topped CBS in primetime, which averaged 2.4 million viewers.

The Five was the highest-rated show during the month, pulling in 4.00 million viewers a night; Jesse Watters Primetime came in second place with 3.44 million viewers, and Bret Baier’s Special Report averaged 3.10 million viewers. That edged out Greg Gutfeld’s show, which averaged 3.04 million viewers, and The Ingraham Angle averaged 2.90 million viewers.

Gutfeld! won the age 25-54 demo for the month, racking up 347,000 young-to-middle-aged viewers each night. The Five averaged 337,000 demo viewers and Jesse Watters grabbed the bronze with 329,000.

Here is a look at how the channels stacked up:

Total Day Mon-Sun

CNN: 565,000 viewers and 93,000 in age 25-54 demo

FOX: 1.72 million viewers and 168,000 in the demo

MS NOW: 709,000 viewers and 79,000 in the demo

Primetime Mon-Sun

CNN: 807,000 viewers and 154,000 in the age 25-54 demo

FOX: 2.61 million and 260,000 in the demo

MS NOW: 1.14 million and 131,000 in the demo

Still, there was good news for all three networks in February’s numbers. All three had double-digit percentage increases in both categories compared to January. Fox’s total day viewership was up 19% month-over-month, while CNN’s was up 11% and MS NOW’s was up 21%; for primetime, Fox was up 28%, CNN was up 22%, and MS NOW was up 28%.

One highlight to point to for MS NOW: ditching Joy Reid looks to be working out just fine. Ratings for The Weeknight — which replaced The ReidOut — in the 7:00 p.m. time slot surged 30% year-over-year compared to Reid’s final month on the channel last February.

CNN also scored its second straight month of gains — notching its best-rated day since the DNC in August 2024 and its best February since 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine was driving large audiences.

And below is a look at how some notable programs on CNN and MS NOW performed.

CNN:

The Source with Kaitlan Collins: 877,000 viewers, 177,000 in the demo

Anderson Cooper 360: 908,000 viewers, 163,000 in the demo

The Lead with Jake Tapper: 835,000, 137,000 in the demo

NewsNight hosted by Abby Phillip: 836,000, 187,000 in the demo

MS NOW:

The Rachel Maddow Show: 2.38 million, 286,000 in the demo

Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell: 1.47 million, 156,000 in the demo

All In with Chris Hayes: 1.28 million, 152,000 in the demo

The Briefing with Jen Psaki: 1.30 million, 145,000 in the demo

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