Weekly Cable Ratings: ESPN, Fox News Battle for Top Spot in Primetime

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Fox News Channel tops total-day chart

Attendees of Nikki Haley's 2020 Iowa Caucus party watch Fox News
Attendees of Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s Iowa caucus night party watch the coverage of the results from Fox News Channel in West Des Moines, Iowa. (Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Fox News Channel barely held off ESPN for primetime basic-cable ratings honors last week as both networks drew more than 2 million viewers.

Fox News, led by its coverage of the January 16 Iowa Caucuses, averaged 2.09 million viewers in primetime for the week of January 15 to January 21, besting ESPN’s 2.05 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers provided by Fox News.

MSNBC finished third with 1 million viewers, followed by HGTV’s 887,000 and TBS’ 713,000 watchers. History was sixth with 685,000, followed by Hallmark Channel (679,000), TNT (623,000), INSP (583,000) and CNN (542,000).

On the total-day chart, Fox News drew 1.3 million viewers, followed by ESPN (970,000 viewers), MSNBC (745,000), HGTV (466,000) and CNN (434,000), said Nielsen.  

R. Thomas Umstead
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.