Weekly Cable Ratings: Fox News Sweeps July With Wins in Primetime, Total Day

Jesse Watters Primetime
Jesse Watters Primetime (Image credit: Fox News)

Fox News Channel closed out the month of July last week with a win in both the primetime and total day basic-cable ratings.

Fox News was the most-watched cable network during the week of July 22-July 29 with an average of 2.8 million viewers, easily topping second place MSNBC’s 1.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers supplied by Fox News. The news network posted its eighth-straight win in the category and marked Fox News’s second-straight monthly primetime sweep. 

USA Network vaulted to third place on the strength of its coverage of the Paris Summer Olympics, averaging 904,000 viewers, followed by CNN’s 862,000 viewers and Hallmark Channel’s 646,000 watchers. 

INSP finished sixth with 609,000 viewers, followed by ESPN (578,000 viewers), TBS (539,000), HGTV (527,000) and History (526,000). 

Fox News was tops in total day for the 29th straight week, averaging 1.7 million viewers. MSNBC was second with 935,000 viewers, followed by CNN (574,000), USA Network (570,000) and Hallmark Channel (385,000), according to Nielsen. 

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.