Weekly Cable Ratings: Donald Trump Rally Shooting Coverage Drives Fox News, Cable News Nets

Fox News
(Image credit: Fox News)

Bolstered by coverage of the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the cable news networks — led by Fox News Channel — finished last week at the top of both the primetime and total-day cable ratings charts.

Fox News was the most-watched network for the week, with an average of 3.8 million viewers — the network’s most-watched week since the November 2020 election, according to Nielsen numbers supplied by Fox News. The network set a weekend ratings high with 6.9 million viewers with its coverage of the shooting at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in which the former president was injured.  

MSNBC finished second in primetime with 1.1 million viewers, followed by CNN with 1 million viewers. 

FS1’s Copa America and Euro 2024 soccer tournament coverage helped the network finish fourth for the week with 824,000 viewers, followed by Hallmark Channel’s 744,000 viewers and HGTV’s 706,000 watchers. INSP was seventh for the week with 631,000 viewers, followed by USA Network (595,000), Discovery Channel (593,000), and History (521,000).

Fox News blew out the competition on a total-day basis, averaging 2 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (691,000 viewers), CNN (563,000), ESPN (483,000) and Hallmark Channel (415,000), according to Nielsen. 

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.