Fox News Makes Cable News Ratings History in Record-Breaking Summer

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Fox News made cable TV history over the summer, averaging 3.5 million total viewers across primetime from the end of May to the end of August. That audience size surpassed all other channels, marking the first time in TV history that a cable news network beat all cable sports channels and broadcast networks in primetime viewership.

“I think it’s very strong,” Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch said of Fox News’ record-breaking performance at a virtual Bank of America conference on Thursday.

“As our ratings increase, our demographics, we have larger cohorts of different demographics,” Murdoch said. “Now we have new viewers to advertise for, we have new categories of advertisers that never advertised in news before are now advertising on Fox News.”

Fox News’ 3.5 million overall viewers outpaced its closest competitors CBS (3.28 million), NBC (2.98 million), and ABC (2.64 million), as well as Fox’s broadcast channel (1.39 million).

To be sure, a number of historic events — from the coronavirus pandemic to nationwide protests — scrambled the traditional TV summer programming schedule. Because Covid-19 lockdowns prevented almost all professional sports for much of the summer and ongoing protests over racial injustice as well as the 2020 presidential campaign piqued news viewership, every cable news channel enjoyed a historic summer. But Fox News led the way and ended up taking the crown as the most-watched network in all of TV.