Fox News Dominates Cable News For October With Israel-Hamas Coverage, But MSNBC and CNN Both Gain Year Over Year
In a month dominated by coverage of the Israel-Hamas War, Fox News came out on top in the October ratings yet again in both total day viewers and in the key 25-54 age demographic.
Fox extended its 33 consecutive month winning streak over MSNBC and CNN in prime time and scored the top 7 shows on cable news for the month. While Fox also gained viewers from September, the network was the only one of the top three to lose viewers year over year.
Fox averaged 1.36 million total day viewers, which was an 8% drop from last October. On the flipside, MSNBC saw a 19% year-over-year increase with an average of 895,000 total day viewers. CNN brought in 600,000 average total day viewers, which was a 12% year-over-year increase. Despite landing a solid third, CNN had its highest-rated month since March of 2022 when Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine dominated the headlines. Historically, breaking news events would surge CNN’s ratings, a trend that may be waning.
Fox’s relatively new prime time line-up saw a 26% increase since September in total viewers with 2.12 million – which was also a 7% drop since last October. In the demo, Fox led with 174,000 viewers – a 15% drop. CNN came in second with 124,000 – a 17% increase – and MSNBC was third with 98,000 demo viewers – up 23%.
MSNBC prime time averaged 1.33 million total viewers, a 12% increase year over year, while CNN’s 722,000 average prime time viewers was an increase of 16%. In the demo, Fox News averaged 256,000 prime time viewers, a 13% drop.
CNN scored a second-place finish in the prime time demo with 167,000 average viewers, a 25% year-over-year increase, while MSNBC landed in third with 132,000 prime time demo viewers – a 16% increase.
NewsNation also saw some growth as the centrist network brought in 118,000 average prime time viewers and 22,000 viewers in the demo, a 23% and 38% increase year over year. The network also scored three consecutive top-rated weeks during the month in total day viewership.
Fox News’s The Five topped the charts, yet again, with 3 million average total viewers and 316,000 demo viewers. Jesse Watters landed in second in total viewers, while Sean Hannity came in second place in the demo.
Hannity, Bret Baier, and Laura Ingraham rounded out the top five most-watched shows in total viewers – in that order, while Greg Gutfeld, Watters, and Ingraham rounded out the top five shows in the demo.
Nicolle Wallace scored the top-rated show on MSNBC for the month with 1.69 million average viewers, followed closely behind by Lawrence O’Donnell’s 1.68 million. Wallace and O’Donnell were the only non-Fox News shows to land in the top ten overall – coming in at numbers 8 and 9 respectively.
Wallace’s total is an average of her two hours of programming from 4 to 6 p.m. on weeknights and while she still led MSNBC with her 5 p.m. show, Fox’s Neil Cavuto did top her at 4 p.m. to win the hour with 1.68 million average viewers to Wallace’s 1.65 million.
The top-rated CNN host was Anderson Cooper, whose 919,000 average total viewers scored him the 27th most-watched show on cable news for the month. Erin Burnett and Jake Tapper were both close behind landing in 28th and 29th place.
