Weekly Cable Ratings: News Networks Dominate Pre-Christmas Viewership

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Fox News tops Primetime, shares total day title with CNN, MSNBC

'The Ingraham Angle'
(Image credit: Fox News)

The cable news networks continued to drive cable viewership in the week before the Christmas holiday, with Fox News topping the charts.

Fox News was the most watched cable network during the week of Dec. 14-Dec. 20, averaging 2.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen. ESPN finished a close second with 2.1 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with 2 million watchers.

Hallmark Channel’s holiday-themed original movies helped land the network in fourth place for the week with 1.7 million viewers, followed by CNN’s 1.6 million viewers. NFL Network’s three National Football League game telecasts during the week aided the network's sixth-place finish with 1.2 million viewers, followed by HGTV (1 million viewers), Freeform (952,000), TBS Network (909,000) and History (884,000).

Fox News, MSNBC and CNN all averaged 1.2 million viewers to finish at the top of the total day chart, followed by Hallmark Channel, ESPN, HGTV, Investigation Discovery, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Freeform and Food Network, 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.