In January 2021 Fox News Ratings Fell Behind CNN And MSNBC
In primetime, Fox News first became the top-rated cable news network in January 2002, just months following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For nearly two decades, regardless of the news cycle, Fox News remained the top-rated cable news for each and every month. Often times, doubling or tripling the audience of rival news networks CNN and MSNBC. In January 2021 that streak came to an end.To get more fox latest news, you can visit shine news official website.
The ratings strength of Fox News came from their politically conservative opinion shows and personality of their primetime hosts. Whereas, on CNN, the ratings can fluctuate daily, based on late breaking news (i.e., earthquakes, plane crashes, hurricanes, etc.), that generate higher ratings, the ratings would drop on the (more often) slower news days. On the other hand, Fox News created personality driven appointment viewing. Each night, millions of viewers tuned in to The Factor with Bill O’Reilly and The Kelly File with Megyn Kelly among others, regardless of the news cycle. The programming strategy was similar to the personality driven and opinionated radio talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, who generated millions of listeners each day.
In other words, Fox News became a destination channel, which grew notably with the emergence of Donald Trump onto the political landscape. For calendar year 2020, in primetime, with Trump running for reelection, along with the pandemic and social justice rallies, Fox News set a cable network audience record in primetime with an average of 3.6 million viewers nightly, a year-over-year increase of 43%. The other major news networks also had record high primetime ratings; MSNBC ranked second among all cable with an average 2.14 million viewers, an increase of 23%. CNN finished third with an average 1.79 million viewers, with a year-over-year increase of 83%, the most of any network.Even more impressive, with many entertainment programs on hiatus and live sports shut down, Fox News between Memorial Day and Labor Day was the top-rated cable and broadcast averaging 3.5 million viewers. A first for any cable network.
The most popular program on Fox News has been Hannity (M-F 9-10 p.m. ET), in 2020 it was the top-rated cable news show for the fourth consecutive year, averaging 4.38 million viewers. Tucker Carlson Tonight (M-F 8-9 p.m. ET) ranked second averaging 4.36 million viewers. The Ingraham Angle (M-F 10-11 p.m. ET) finished fourth (behind The Five also on Fox News) among all cable news shows averaging 3.53 million viewers.
Fox News has been the top-rated cable network in primetime July 2016, when, not coincidentally, Donald Trump became the Republican Presidential candidate. December 2020, marked the 54th consecutive month of being cable’s top-rated network. The streak ended the following month. In addition, the streak as the most watched cable news network also ended. In January 2021, CNN was the top-rated cable news network and cable network overall in primetime. MSNBC also averaged more viewers in January 2021 than Fox News. The last time Fox News ranked third among cable news networks in primetime for an entire month was September 1999.