Weekly Cable Ratings: Fox News Rides State of the Union Coverage to Ratings Sweep

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MSNBC surpasses ESPN for second place on primetime, total day charts

Fox News
Martha McCallum and Bret Baier covered the State of the Union address for Fox News Channel. (Image credit: Fox News)

Fox News Channel dominated the weekly cable primetime and total day charts, led by its coverage of President Joe Biden’s February 7 State of The Union address. 

Fox News averaged 2.5 million viewers during the week of February 6-12, easily besting second-place MSNBC’s 1.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Fox News’s State of the Union address coverage averaged 4.7 million viewers, topping all broadcast and cable networks.

ESPN was third with 945,000 viewers, followed by HGTV with 821,000 viewers and History’s 750,000 watchers. INSP finished sixth with 745,000 viewers, followed by CNN (719,000 viewers), TNT (703,000), Hallmark Channel (698,000) and USA Network (671,000).

Fox News was the most watched network on a total day basis for the sixth straight week with 1.5 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (777,000 viewers), ESPN (547,000), CNN (500,000) and HGTV (460,000), Nielsen said. ■  

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.