Weekly Cable Ratings: Eventful Week Helps Fox News Hit Primetime, Total-Day Highs
News network rolls with coverage for RNC, Biden’s withdrawal from presidential race
![Fox News](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/yLjGTHhTV6jjjksUXX7eNd-320-80.png)
Fox News Channel last week drew its biggest primetime and total day audiences for the year during a politics-heavy news week that included coverage of the Republican National Convention and President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for re-election.
Fox News averaged 5 million viewers in primetime during the week of July 15-21, easily beating second-place ESPN’s 1.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen figures supplied by Fox News. The network bested its previous high of 3.8 million viewers set just last week.
MSNBC finished third with 1.1 million viewers, followed by CNN’s 1 million viewers and Hallmark Channel’s 775,000 watchers.
HGTV was sixth with 735,000 viewers, followed by TBS (601,000 viewers), INSP (581,000), Newsmax TV (580,000) and USA Network (545,000).
Fox News’s 2.5 million viewers on a total-day basis was also its high for the year, beating out the 2 million viewers the network averaged last week. MSNBC (716,000 viewers), CNN (571,000), Hallmark Channel (431,000), and ESPN (397,000) rounded out the top five most-watched networks on a 24-hour basis, 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.