Fox News Dominates as CNN Sinks to Three-Year Ratings Low Amid Impeachment Coverage
While wallowing in its coverage of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, CNN was walloped in prime time last week, according to new rating figures that show Fox News remained the king of the cable news hill.
Figures from Nielsen Media Research show that Fox News averaged nearly 2.2 million viewers in primetime last week, which included the Thanksgiving holiday, according to the Daily Caller.
MSNBC held down second place with an average of 1.3 million viewers, while CNN posted its worst prime time week in three years with 643,000 prime time viewers. That means the Fox had more viewers on average than CNN and MSNBC combined.
Advertisers covet viewers in the 25-54 age range. Fox ruled there as well, according to Nielsen’s numbers.
Fox’s average audience included 303,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic. MSNBC was second with 187,000 viewers. CNN posted 138,000 viewers in the 25-54 age range.
Fox News was also in first place for total daytime ratings for the 47th straight week with an average more than 1.3 million viewers. For the 17th week in a row, Fox also was tops among viewers 25-54, average 220,000 from the coveted demographic.
Fox’s triumph during the last week of November was part of its overall ratings dominance.
For the month of November, Nielsen data showed Fox with an average of 2.779 million viewers, according to Forbes.
The showing was up 15 percent from Fox’s November 2018 numbers. MSNBC also posted an increase, rising 12 percent from last year to hold down second place at 2.060 million viewers.
CNN, however, went in the other direction. Its prime time average of 999,000 viewers was down 11 percent from 2018.
Fox has now won the cable news ratings war for 215 straight months.
Fox News stalwart Sean Hannity led all cable news primetime shows with an average audience of 3.585 million viewers. Hannity’s closest competitor was Fox’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which posted an average of 3.413 viewers.
Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show was the only non-Fox entry in the top five with 3.175 million viewers. The last two top five spots were held by Fox’s “The Five,” at 3.011 million and “The Ingraham Angle” at 2.827 million.
Sagging ratings are not the only problem for CNN, which was hit with a $435 million defamation suit by Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, according to The Washington Post.
CNN reported Nunes made a trip to Vienna to meet a former prosecutor from Ukraine, a claim Nunes denies.
“In promoting fake news about secret meetings in Vienna with a corrupt former Ukraine prosecutor, CNN pandered to lurid curiosity,” the complaint said. “CNN is the mother of fake news. It is the least trusted name. CNN is eroding the fabric of America, proselytizing, sowing distrust and disharmony. It must be held accountable.”
“CNN harbors an institutional hatred, extreme bias, spite and ill-will toward [Nunes], the GOP and President Trump,” the complaint said.
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