ESPN and Fox News battled to a weekly cable primetime tie during the last week in September.
ESPN, helped by the more than 7 million viewers who tuned into its Sept. 26 Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants Monday Night Football game, and Fox News – buoyed by its coverage of powerful Hurricane Ian’s landfall early last week in Florida – each averaged 2.1 million viewers during the week of Sept. 26 to Oct. 2, according to Nielsen.
MSNBC pulled into third place with 1.1 million viewers followed by HGTV’s 809,000 viewers, CNN’s 770,000 viewers and TLC’s 748,000 watchers. Hurricane Ian coverage also bolstered The Weather Channel, which finished seventh with 700,000 viewers, followed by Hallmark Channel (698,000), INSP (664,000) and TBS (580,000), said network officials.
Fox News averaged 1.4 million viewers on a 24-hour basis to top all cable networks for the 39th straight week, followed by ESPN (815,000 viewers), MSNBC (779,000) CNN (670,000) and The Weather Channel (662,000), said Nielsen. ■
