Fox News continues to dominate the news competition in the cable ratings battle, but they fell from the number one spot for overall primetime cable ratings.
Fox News finished No. 2 in total prime time viewers to TNT, who experienced a viewer bump last week thanks to the NBA playoffs. However, Fox destroyed news competitors MSNBC and CNN and finished number one in total day viewers. CNN didn’t even manage to crack the top five for total day or total primetime viewers.
Fox won every time slot from 4pm to 11pm in both total viewers and the 25-54 category, according to the latest figures from Ad Week. FNC had three times as many average primetime viewers when compared to competitor CNN, hitting 2.902 million viewers compared to CNN’s 910,000. (RELATED: The Ratings From Last Week Are In, And CNN Is Getting Crushed By Its Competition)
Boasting personalities Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham in their primetime lineup, FNC also dominated the primetime viewers in the 25-54 category. Fox’s average ratings in that category were 595,000, compared to MSNBC’s 464,000 and CNN’s 314,000.
Fox’s Sean Hannity and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow routinely jostle for supremacy in the 9pm time slot, but Hannity reigned supreme this time around, gathering 3.281 million total viewers compared to Maddow’s 2.733 million. In the 25-54 category, Hannity got 681,000 viewers to Maddow’s 577,000.
In January, Fox set a ratings record, becoming the most-watched cable news channel for 16 years. Their dominance shows little signs of slowing down. (RELATED: Fox Most-Watched Cable News Channel For 16 Years)