Cable News Sheds Viewers In November, CNN Struggles as Fox Remains Dominant
Screenshot via Fox News
Cable news took a hit in the ratings this November both compared to last month, which saw a spike in viewers as the Israel-Hamas War broke out, and year-over-year when the 2022 midterm elections took place.
Fox News continued its dominance over the industry and scored both the top 6 rated shows on cable news and 90 of the top 100 rated telecasts. In the key 25-54 age demographic, Fox did even better, scoring the top 12 programs – led by Greg Gutfeld’s eponymous show Gutfeld!
MSNBC was the only network to gain viewers year over year in any category with a 3 percent boost in total day viewers – more than any other top 25 basic cable network.
CNN, which did not score a single top 100 telecast for the month, recorded the largest drop of the big three networks from October as the news-heavy network’s war coverage saw less interest. CNN did, however, top MSNBC in the demo, despite losing in total viewers for the 20th consecutive month.
In raw numbers, Fox averaged 1.18 million total day viewers and 143,000 average total day demo viewers – a 13 and 18 percent drop from October, respectively. In prime time Fox brought in 1.725 million average viewers and 199,000 in the demo, an 18 and 22 percent drop from October.
MSNBC averaged 1.14 million total viewers in prime time and 109,000 in the demo, a 14 and 17 percent drop from October. In total day, MSNBC averaged 778,000 viewers and 81,000 in the demo, a 13 percent drop in both categories from the previous month, but still good enough to score a year-over-year gain in total viewers.
CNN’s rating woes continued as the network brought in 540,000 total average prime time viewers and 122,000 in the demo, a 25 and 27 percent drop from October, respectively. In total day, CNN did not crack half a million average viewers, bringing in only 474,000 with 93,000 in the demo – a 21 and 25 percent drop.
Fox’s The Five led cable news with 2.874 million total viewers, followed by Jesse Watters Primetime (2,566,000), Hannity (2,254,000), Special Report with Bret Baier (2,176,000) and The Ingraham Angle (2,146,000). In the demo, Gutfeld led with 277,000 viewers, followed by Jesse Watters Primetime (273,000), The Five (270,000), Hannity (260,000), and The Ingraham Angle (221,000).
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace scored the top-rated daily non-Fox show with 1.69 million viewers, Ari Melber was close behind with 1.65 million. Rachel Maddow’s Monday evening-only program continues to be a major draw for the network, averaging 2.4 million viewers during the month.
CNN’s Erin Burnett led her network with 741,000 average viewers, just cracking the top 30 programs on cable news.
