October Ratings: Fox News Lands Top 13 Shows on Cable News — Leads With Hispanic Viewers

Fox News closed out October by marking its 20th consecutive month as the most watched network on all of cable television and absolutely destroyed its cable news competition in terms of both total viewers and in the key 25-54 age demographic.

While MSNBC managed to average well above 1 million prime time viewers for the month, CNN brought in only 624,000 average prime time viewers.

CNN did however beat MSNBC in the demo both in total day and in prime time as MSNBC’s total day demo came in at an average of 80,000 viewers. By comparison, Fox News averaged 206,000 total day demo viewers, while CNN had 106,000.

MSNBC’s prime time demo viewership dropped by 20 percent this year over year.

Fox News scored the top 13 shows on cable news, while MSNBC landed 6 inside the top 20 and CNN only had one show, Jake Tapper’s The Lead, inside the top 25 shows.

Fox’s The Five, Tucker Carlson Tonight, Jesse Watters Prime Time, Hannity, and Special Report with Bret Baier made up the five most-watched shows on cable – respectively. The Five notched its 7th consecutive month at number one on all of cable news. Tucker Carlson rated number one in the demo for the month.

Fox News, notably, accounted for 55 percent of all cable news viewers across prime time and 54 percent in total day, beating CNN and MSNBC combined in both total viewers and in the demo.

According to Nielsen MRI Fusion data, which looks at audience demographics, Fox News topped both MSNBC and CNN in total day and prime time viewers in the demo among Democrats and Independents – leading across the board with Republicans.

Additionally, Fox News was the most-watched cable news network among Hispanic and Asian households in total day viewers, according to Nielsen MRI Fusion.

While Tapper led CNN with the 24th most-watched show for the month on cable news followed by Anderson Cooper at 26, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell led MSNBC with the 14th most-watched show overall.

O’Donnell was followed closely by Nicolle Wallace who had the 15th most-watched program. Alex Wagner ended the month with 1.42 million total viewers, her lowest-rated month since launching her Tuesday through Friday show in mid-August.

Here are the total day averages in total viewers and the 25-54 category during the month of October.

Total viewers:

CNN: 533,000

Fox 1.48 million

MSNBC: 751,000

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 106,000

Fox News: 206,000

MSNBC: 80,000

Here are the prime time averages — encompassing shows which air from 8-11 p.m. —during the month of October.

Total viewers:

CNN: 624,000

Fox News: 2.29 million

MSNBC: 1.18 million

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 134,000

Fox News: 295,000

MSNBC: 114,000

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