Fox News Tops All Broadcast Networks in Summer Primetime Ratings for Second Time In Its History
(Sipa via AP Images)
Fox News rode a massive summer ratings wave all the way to yet another major milestone — with the perennial ratings titan besting not only its cable news peers, but all the major broadcast networks as well in an all-important time slot.
According to data from Nielsen, Fox News — from the period spanning June 20 through Sept. 1 — finished as the no. 1 network in all of broadcast television during the primetime hours of 8-11 PM. During those hours, Fox News averaged 2.43 million total nightly viewers in primetime — topping ABC at 2.38 million, NBC at 2.21 million, and CBS at 2.03 million. It is the second time in the network’s history they accomplished that feat — with the other coming in the summer of 2020.
Among their cable news rivals, it wasn’t even a horse race — with Fox News nearly doubling CNN and MSNBC combined. MSNBC drew 783,000 average nightly total viewers during the primetime hours, while CNN posted an average of 444,000 viewers. CNN did fare better than MSNBC in the advertiser-coverted 25-54 age demographic — edging out MSNBC 78,000 to 72,000 in nightly viewers among that category. But Fox dramatically outpaced the competition in that metric as well — pulling in 237,000 nightly primetime viewers in the 25-54 age range.
Jesse Watters Primetime carried the torch for Fox News in the 8-11 window — bringing in an average of 3.06 million total viewers per night in August. Gutfeld! trailed slightly behind, with 2.85 million, and Hannity added 2.61 million in the 9 PM hour during August. Notably, Fox’s highest performer in August came from outside of primetime — as The Five put up a whopping 3.48 million total viewers daily.
And Fox News is not only scoring with opinion programming, but with their news programming as well. Special Report with Bret Baier brought in 2.55 million nightly total viewers and 249,000 in the key demo. Fox’s 6 PM news hour seems to be knocking on the door of its broadcast rivals — with Special Report having beaten all three network newscasts in at least a handful of major markets.
