Cable television news has never been more in vogue and so competitive.
Several programs on MSNBC and CNN had their most-watched months ever in January, the Nielsen company said. CNN as a network did so, too, in a newsy month where the Capitol insurrection and President Joe Biden’s inauguration left a lot to talk about.
For the weekday prime-time schedule — the heart of the networks — MSNBC averaged 3.31 million viewers, CNN had 3.12 million and Fox News Channel had 2.89 million. Fox has been the top-rated cable news network for 19 years, and this represented the first month it finished third to its rivals since 1999, Nielsen said.
Over the full day, CNN averaged 1.91 million viewers for the month (up 151% from January 2020). MSNBC had 1.66 million (up 65%) and Fox News Channel was 1.37 million (down 20%).
Fox News returned to the top in prime-time ratings last week, the first full week of the Biden administration, Nielsen said. The major trends are continuing, however: CNN is markedly up over last year, MSNBC is up by a smaller margin and Fox is declining.
For the week, CBS was the most-watched broadcast network, averaging 4.7 million viewers in prime time. ABC had 3.6 million, NBC had 3 million, Fox had 2.6 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Telemundo had 1.12 million and Ion Television had 1.11 million.
Fox News Channel led among the cable networks, averaging 2.56 million viewers. MSNBC had 2.23 million, CNN had 1.79 million, HGTV had 1.33 million and History had 1.03 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 9.9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 8.3 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.2 million.
For the week of Jan. 25-31, the 20 most-watched programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. “NCIS,” CBS, 10.03 million.
2. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.36 million.
3. “FBI,” CBS, 8.28 million.
4. “911,” Fox, 7.22 million.
5. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7.2 million.
6. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 6.96 million.
7. “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, ABC, 6.61 million.
8. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 6.42 million.
9. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 6.23 million.
10. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 5.971 million.
11. “Bob Hearts Abishola,” CBS, 5.967 million.
12. “911: Lone Star,” Fox, 5.91 million.
13. “Bull,” CBS, 5.39 million.
14. “The Bachelor,” ABC, 5.27 million.
15. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 5.07 million.
16. “The Price is Right,” CBS, 4.89 million.
17. “The Chase,” ABC, 4.86 million.
18. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 4.67 million.
19. “To Tell the Truth,” ABC, 4.484 million.
20. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 4.437 million.
(AP)
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2 Responses
MSNBC and CNN are two American hating cable news networks.
They engage in news blackouts of any issue that doesn’t have a far left (liberal) agenda.
They were, and still are, refusing to cover the months of rioting and destruction by groups of anarchists in this country.
The commentators will excuse and minimize the utter destruction these people are reaping on this country. Millions of dollars of destruction has been caused by them. Many cities like Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis look like war zones, burned out buildings, abandoned stores.
Also, these networks consistently criticize Israel.
America is a radically changed country.
This has changed markedly since Biden prevailed in the Presidential election and has been executive orderer in chief for a week or so. Now that they don’t have Trump to rail against the leftist networks ratings have nosedived rapidly.
Also Fox’s ratings have improved once they realized they were hemorrhaging viewers to Newsmax and reversed their slide to the left.