Fox News Channel crushes CNN, MSNBC during historic news week to finish No. 1 in all of cable

Americans relied on Fox News Channel for information and analysis during last week’s historic news events. 

The aftermath of the assassination attempt on former President Trump, JD Vance being named Trump’s running mate, the momentous Republican National Convention and President Biden dropping out of the race resulted in one of the most significant news cycles of all time from July 15-21. 

During that time, Fox News topped all of television among primetime viewers, beating out broadcast competition and posting its highest-rated week since the 2020 election among both total day and primetime viewers.

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During the RNC, Fox News averaged 6.7 million viewers from 8-11 p.m. ET for a staggering 75% share of the entire cable news primetime audience. CNN drew 1.2 million and MSNBC managed an average audience of 1.1 million. 

On Sunday, Fox News reported that Biden ended his reelection campaign before CNN or MSNBC when anchor Mike Emanuel informed the audience at 1:50 p.m. ET. From 2-4 p.m. ET, as the news unfolded, Fox News averaged 3.5 million viewers compared to two million apiece for CNN and MSNBC. 

Fox News then bumped regularly scheduled programming and attracted a primetime audience of 3.3 million on Sunday night with continued coverage of Biden stepping aside. 

During the week of July 15, Fox News averaged 2.5 million total viewers to crush all cable competition. MSNBC averaged 716,000 to finish second, CNN managed 571,000 to finish third, followed by the Hallmark Channel and ESPN. 

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During primetime, Fox News averaged five million viewers compared to 1.3 million for No. 2 ESPN, while MSNBC, CNN and Hallmark rounded out the top five. 

When it comes to the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54, Fox News averaged 376,000 total day viewers compared to 174,000 for No. 2 ESPN. During primetime, Fox News averaged 790,000 demo viewers with runner-up ESPN averaging 528,000, followed by CNN, USA and TBS. Fox News beat CNN and MSNBC combined in all categories. 

All data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research.