Fox and Friends Wins Morning Cable News Race, As Morning Joe Has Big Growth

Fox’s Fox and Friends finished first in May, marking 115 consecutive months at number one among cable’s morning shows. Boosted by the timely addition of buzz magnet Donald Trump , Fox and Friends grew its audience by 13 percent among viewers 25-54 and eight percent overall–beating the combined ratings for CNN’s American Morning and MSNBC’s Morning Joe in both the demo and total viewers.

For a long-running show that at times gets more attention for its improvised, unpredictable, and at times, cringeworthy than its day-in-and-day-out ratings, execs at Fox News look at Fox and Friends as an increasingly important (and often overlooked) part of the network’s overall ratings power–a franchise show that has seen no erosion in its ratings strength, and in fact has grown.

At MSNBC, Morning Joe remained in second place, and had its best performance among viewers 25-54 since 2008. The show also saw significant growth compared to the same period last year. MJ‘s ratings grew by 53 percent among viewers 25-54 and 28 percent among total viewers, though the gap between MSNBC, CNN and HLN (which airs Robin Meade‘s Morning Express) remains quite close–just 18,000 viewers (25-54) separate the three shows. In the same period last year, the gap was slightly wider in the demo, with Morning Joe ahead of American Morning by 23,000 viewers.

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