Weekly Cable Ratings: Fox News Holds Off March Madness To Keep Primetime Win Streak Alive

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News network extends total day streak to 11 weeks

Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity and Fox News Channel’s primetime lineup notched a ratings win over the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. (Image credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

Fox News Channel beat the full-court press of TBS and TNT’s coverage of the men’s March Madness college basketball tournament to top cable’s primetime ratings chart for the 10th straight week.

Fox News averaged 1.9 million viewers in primetime for the week of March 18-24, topping second place TBS’s 1.7 million viewers and TNT’s 1.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers supplied by Fox News.

MSNBC finished in fourth place with 1.2 million viewers, followed by March Madness-infused truTV’s 1 million watchers. ESPN, home of women’s March Madness, was sixth for the week with 815,000 viewers, followed by HGTV (773,000 viewers), History (732,000), Hallmark Channel (639,000) and INSP (615,000).

Fox News led all networks on a total day basis with 1.2 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (816,000 viewers), TBS (642,000), TNT (587,000) and ESPN (473,000), 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.