Five CNN Hosts Beat Fox News On Sunday in the Demo

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to grow cable news viewership across the board, CNN scored a rare victory over Fox News on Sunday – winning multiple time slots in the key 25-54 age demographic.

CNN’s Brian Stelter, Jim Acosta, Fredericka Whitfield, Pamela Brown, and Michael Holmes all anchored timeslots on Sunday that topped their Fox News competition in the demo and far outpaced MSNBC, which landed in a solid third across the board.

In terms of overall viewers, Fox News still won the day with three hours over 3 million viewers and 10 hours over 2 million. By contrast, only Acosta managed to rake in an audience of over 2 million total viewers on CNN for the day.

Fox’s Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday Morning Futures won the day in terms of total viewers with an audience of 3.17 million. Trey Gowdy was close behind with 3.1 million at 7 p.m. and 3.07 million at 8 p.m. Also, of note, Harris Faulkner guest-hosted Fox News Sunday and saw the show’s ratings bump up 23 percent compared to last week.

Acosta helmed the 4 and 5 p.m. hours of CNN Newsroom on Sunday, with the second hour leading the network in the demo for the day. Acosta, who also serves as the network’s chief domestic correspondent, raked in 695,000 demo viewers, a massive number, which beat Fox’s 5 p.m. offering the Big Sunday Show, which brought in 599,000 demo viewers.

MSNBC’s Politics Nation at 5 p.m. lagged far behind with only 86,000 demo viewers.

Stelter’s 11 a.m. episode of Reliable Sources pulled in a very solid 529,000 demo viewers, which topped Fox’s Media Buzz with Howard Kurtz, who landed at 489,000 viewers in the demo. Whitfield’s helming of Newsroom from 1 to 3 p.m. also outpaced Fox News in the demo during those hours, beating Fox News Live in both hours.

Brown, who is also a senior Washington Correspondent at CNN, took over CNN Newsroom from Acosta and managed to beat out Fox in the demo. Brown from 9 to 11 p.m. beat Fox’s The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton in both hours. Brown brought in 625,000 in the first hour and 609,000 in the second compared to Hilton’s 603,000 and 531,000 demo viewers in both hours.

Australian news anchor and correspondent for CNN International, Michael Holmes, anchored the 11 p.m. hour of CNN Newsroom Live and also scored a win over Fox. Holmes brought in 463,000 demo viewers to 451,000 demo viewers for Fox Report with Jon Scott.

As @holmescnn anchors in Lviv, CNN’s global coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues.

Follow the latest updates: https://t.co/ZgNWzEJJuQ pic.twitter.com/7fGw9l1lA7

— CNN International PR (@cnnipr) February 28, 2022

In Monday’s ratings, Fox still dominated, winning every hour in both the demo and in terms of total viewers, except for two. CNN’s Don Lemon at 11 p.m. topped Fox News Live in the demo and CNN Newsroom at 2 p.m. just edged out Fox’s America Reports with 464,000 to 462,000 demo viewers.

Correction: This story was edited to reflect that five, not three CNN hosts beat Fox News in the demo on Sunday.

Here is a full breakdown of Sunday’s cable news ratings by show:

Total Viewers (thousands)

25-54 Demo (thousands)