Fox News Is Back To Number One, and All Is Right In The World

Nothing pisses off Fox News more than when a competitor beats them in the ratings for a night. Luckily for the perennial 1st place cable news network, it happens very, very rarely. But leave it to Michael Jackson to break in and give CNN a win on Tuesday.

At the time, we asked (and answered): “Will the ratings hold now that Jackson isn’t the story? Probably not.” Well, they didn’t – Fox News was back on top Wednesday, by a lot.

FNC retained 54% of its total viewer audience and 38% of its A25-54 demo audience from Tuesday to Wednesday (during the same 1-4pmET period). But MSNBC retained just 21% and 12%, and CNN just 16% and 10%.

What does all this mean? Fox was back in first place in both categories. In prime time, Fox was first as well. It was more of the same from Wednesday to Thursday, in every category.

A CNN spokesperson tells Mediaite, “It’s an enormous strength when a news organization increases viewers during a big news story or event – and it’s illogical to try and portray otherwise.”

Of course it’s a strength for CNN to increase viewership, but it’s as much a weakness to lose the audience at a bigger rate than its competitors. But hey, it’s Friday on Week 1 of our launch here – everybody is a winner this week!

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