Weekly Cable Ratings: Fox News Three-Peats in Primetime, Total Day (Dec. 11-17)

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Saturday football slate helps NFL Network finish in third place

The Five Fox News Media
‘The Five’ on Fox News Channel (Image credit: Fox News Media)

Fox News Channel last week edged out football-heavy ESPN and NFL Network in primetime to secure its third-straight weekly cable ratings win in the category.

Fox News averaged 1.7 million primetime viewers for the week of December 11-17 to beat out second-place ESPN, which averaged 1.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers provided by the network.

NFL Network, which aired three live NFL games on December 16, finished third for the week with 1.4 million viewers, followed by Hallmark Channel, which averaged 1.2 million viewers, and MSNBC, which garnered 1.1 million viewers. 

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries finished sixth with 702,000 viewers, followed by History (679,000), HGTV (665,000), TBS (646,000) and USA Network (605,000).

Fox News averaged 1.1 million viewers on a total day basis for the week, beating out MSNBC (748,000 viewers), NFL Network (701,000), ESPN (683,000) and Hallmark Channel (664,000), according to 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.