Weekly Cable Ratings: Fox News Hits Yearly Primetime Audience High
Network’s State of The Union address coverage helps propel viewership
Fox News Channel set high marks for the year in primetime and total day as its coverage of President Joe Biden’s March 7 State of The Union address helped push the network’s winning streak on both basic-cable charts to eight weeks.
Fox News averaged 2.6 million viewers in primetime for the week of March 4-10, besting MSNBC’s 1.6 million viewers and ESPN’s 1.1 million watchers, according to Nielsen numbers provided by Fox News.
The cable news network was paced by its coverage of the State of the Union and the Republican response, which drew 5.8 million viewers, topping all broadcast and cable networks, said Nielsen.
HGTV finished fourth for the week in primetime with 799,000 viewers, while History pulled into fifth with 795,000 viewers. CNN was sixth with 761,000 viewers, followed by TBS (659,000 viewers), Hallmark Channel (628,000), USA Network (610,000), and TNT (590,000).
On a 24-hour basis, Fox News finished first with 1.4 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (916,000 viewers), ESPN (582,000), CNN (482,000) and HGTV (418,000), according to Nielsen.
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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.