The ratings erosion from the past few months experienced by a couple of cable news outlets continues, as the past month showed it has not been a simple case of a post-election lull. For MSNBC and CNN, January delivered depressing results, with one experiencing related issues. Two hundred layoffs were announced at CNN’s broadcast side, as well as a major shakeup of its on-air schedule – the latter leading to the departure of longtime fixture Jim Acosta.
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The Nielsen viewership ratings have been compiled, and they show two trends since early November: MSNBC and CNN suffering viewership loss, and Fox seeing gains at the same time. That dichotomy in the numbers means things cannot be dismissed as a normal drop after an election. Fox News is in a position of dominance that may not have been seen prior.
The significant shift represents a national trend in the polls showing the Democratic Party is seeing some of the lowest approval numbers experienced. In the total day and primetime preferred demo, MSNBC and CNN experienced the lowest January results ever. At the same time, Fox News experienced its best performance in the month of January, with many programs hitting new highs in the process.
For the month, Fox averaged 2.8 million viewers in primetime and 353,000 in the demo, a more than 50 percent increase in viewership totals from January 2024 and a 70 percent jump in the demo. The figures for the competition were dismal.
CNN averaged only 522,000 viewers in primetime, and the total day average was a minuscule 421,000. MSNBC was only marginally better, with 734,000 primetime viewers and barely over half a million total day on average. These trends were essentially the same in the demo, meaning that FoxNews has over a staggering two-thirds share of the cable news audience.
The ratings in cable news have shifted from stark to astounding.@FoxNews saw major gains in January while @CNN and @MSNBC continued to wither.
For the month not only did Fox dominate, its numbers were more than double the COMBINED numbers of the competition. pic.twitter.com/kMeNp5TUSl— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) January 31, 2025
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Across its schedule, Fox shows experience this rising tide. “The Five” led all cable news shows with 4.8 million average viewers. Its primetime lineup saw all shows averaging above three million, with “Gutfeld!” hitting 3.3 million and beating all late-night network talk shows. Daytime at Fox also saw a number of programs hitting all-time highs.
As dire as these numbers appear for the networks, they may have been even worse, save for a burst of viewer interest in the days surrounding the inauguration of Donald Trump and the ensuing days of activity as he launched his administration. Absent that audience interest, these grave results would have been even worse for the cable news also-rans.
