Fox News Wins 2021: How the Network Went From Last Place in January to Crushing CNN and MSNBC

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Fox News pulled off a remarkable turnaround in 2021. The long-dominant network began the year with a historic run at third place in the January ratings but has since rebounded in a dramatic fashion.

Despite its slow start, Fox is set to finish 2021 – for the sixth year in a row – as the number one channel on basic cable, which will also mark its 20th straight year as the number one network in cable news. Fox News Media’s CEO Suzanne Scott boasted in a statement that it is the only cable news network to show growth in a year in which everyone lost viewers en mass. New programming, a host of new issues to cover, a president to oppose, and the strength of prime time opinion shows appear to have made the difference for Fox in 2021.

While the network has stirred its fair share of controversy this year and said goodbye to one of its most well-respected veteran journalists, Chris Wallace, Fox also managed to pull in a surprising, ideologically diverse audience.

According to data from Nielsen/MRI Fusion, Fox News is watched by more Democrats than CNN and by more Independents than both MSNBC and CNN. Data averages from April to August show that while Fox pulled in 62 percent of all conservatives watching cable, 29 percent of all liberals watched Fox – while 46 percent watched MSNBC and 25 percent watched CNN. MSNBC attracted 24 percent of the conservative audience, while CNN only pulled in 14 percent.

Among Independents, Fox attracted 45 percent of the total audience, while MSNBC received 31 percent and CNN raked in 24 percent. While the exact meaning of these numbers is difficult to parse out, they track with a larger trend in media for 2021 – a diminishing interest in political news. Even the Washington Post, which saw interest in its core political stories diminish this year, is looking beyond politics to attract readers and new subscribers.

And while its competitors CNN and MSNBC continued to laser focus on Donald Trump, January 6th, and discord within the Republican Party, Fox News found more fertile subjects for its audience.

Fox noticeably moved away from mentions of Trump. Mediaite’s Colby Hall documented in October that Fox mentioned Trump far fewer times than CNN or MSNBC. The shift was counter-intuitive, as the 45th president had been credited with the so-called Trump bump that drove record viewers and clicks across cable news and digital media during his presidency.

But it worked for Fox’s audience, which was treated to coverage on a range of other issues from the Covid-19 pandemic, critical race theory, crime, the southern border, inflation, and oppositional coverage of President Joe Biden.

Fox’s lineup regularly scored the top five shows on cable news in 2021 and ten of the top fifteen shows. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who often lands around fifth or sixth in the ratings, is putting up the stiffest competition, but still lags far behind.

Tucker Carlson Tonight ended the year number one, followed closely behind by The Five, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham. Fox’s newest hit, Gutfeld!, a late-night comedy show launched in April is regularly landing in the top five in recent months while beating broadcast shows like ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC’s The Tonight Show, and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. Host Greg Gutfeld is also a panelist on The Five, making him one of the most seen faces (if not the most) on cable news any given day.

In terms of raw numbers for 2021, Fox averaged 1.3 million in total day viewers, while MSNBC and CNN lagged behind with 919,000 and 787,000 – respectively.

In prime time, Fox averaged 2.3 million viewers, with 374,000 in the key 25-54 age demographic. CNN brought in 1.1 million average total viewers and 276,000 in the demo, while MSNBC pulled in 1.55 million total average viewers and only 220,000 in the demo.

This is a major reversal from the beginning of the year. From January 4th to the 14th Fox averaged around 780,000 fewer total day viewers than MSNBC and around 1 million fewer than CNN. In primetime, Fox trailed MSNBC by around 650,000 viewers and CNN by some 920,000 viewers during that same period.

The ratings crisis was so bad for Fox News that Rupert Murdoch reportedly got involved in the day-to-day operations of the network (though Scott’s contract was renewed shortly after.) Executives worried that viewers were jumping ship to more Trumpy networks like Newsmax, which saw a ratings surge in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

In a statement, Fox’s CEO credited changes to the network lineup for audience growth.

Not only were we the only network to grow our audience share, but we did so while changing our lineup and transforming the entire late-night television landscape in the process, ensuring our continued momentum for many years to come.

Numbers are still down year-over-year, which is understandable given 2020 was an election year. Despite finishing on top, Fox’s average prime time viewers went down a whopping 35 percent from 2020. MSNBC, the third most-watched channel on basic cable, declined 28 percent and CNN lost 39 percent in prime time, compared to 2020.

CNN even went so far as to acknowledge the so-called Trump slump in its annual break down of the ratings:

Of note: All of cable news dayparts and programs are down double digits vs. 2020 due to heightened viewership during the COVID-19 pandemic and presidential election year a year ago.

CNN ends the year, having fired its most-watched host Chris Cuomo, lagging far behind Fox and MSNBC in prime time and having trouble retaining viewers in Cuomo’s old time slot.

CNN is banking on CNN+ to lift the network in 2020 and has retained high-profile names like Chris Wallace and NBC News’ Kasie Hunt for the streaming service.

CNN is entering the streaming wars over three years behind Fox, which launched Fox Nation in November 2018 and saw its subscriber base jump by 40 percent this year. While cable news continues to grapple with a changing media landscape, the shift to streaming will undoubtedly dominate 2022 just as another election year may help to revive interest in political news.