Fox News crushes competition as CNN draws smallest weekly audience in seven years

Fox News Channel crushed cable news competition last week while CNN hit historic lows in multiple categories including having its smallest total day audience in seven years. 

Fox News averaged 1.5 million total day viewers from Feb. 7-13, finishing as the only basic cable network to surpass the one-million viewer benchmark. USA, MSNBC, HGTV and Hallmark rounded out the top five while CNN averaged only 444,000 viewers to settle for eighth. It was CNN’s worst performance in the category since November 2015.

CNN’s struggles were even more alarming during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET, where Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon have found it difficult to attract viewers since the network terminated Chris Cuomo last year. 

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CNN averaged a dismal 491,000 primetime viewers compared to 2.4 million for Fox News to top the liberal network by 385%. It was Fox News’ biggest advantage over CNN since August 2015 when then-candidate Donald Trump took the stage for his first GOP primary debate. 

Fox News finished No. 1 among all basic cable offering during primetime. USA, MSNBC, INSP and Hallmark rounded out the top five while HGTV, History, ESPN, Discovery, TNT, TBS, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, TV Land, A&E and SyFy all finished with a larger audience than CNN. 

"Tucker Carlson Tonight" averaged 3.5 million viewers to finish as the most-watched cable news program of the week. "The Five" averaged just below "Tucker" to finish second, followed by "Jesse Watters Primetime," "Hannity" and "Special Report with Bret Baier" as Fox News had 81 of the top 100 cable telecasts for the week. 

A plethora of obscure programing outdrew CNN’s "The Lead with Jake Tapper," which was the most-watched show on the struggling network with an average audience of only 663,000. History’s "Proof is Out There," TLC’s "I am Shauna Rae," Food Network’s "Restaurant Impossible," Investigation Discovery’s "Chaos in Court," History’s "Ancient Aliens" and Bravo’s "The Real Housewives of Orange County" are among the shows that finished with a larger audience than CNN’s most popular show. 

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"Tucker Carlson Tonight" also finished atop the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54, averaging 553,000 viewers among the critical category. Every single program Fox News aired on weekdays from 6 a.m. through 1 a.m. topped timeslot competition from MSNBC and CNN in the demo.

"FOX & Friends" averaged 1.4 million viewers compared to only 363,000 for CNN’s "New Day" and 763,000 for MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" to top the other two morning shows combined. It was the 47th straight week that "FOX & Friends" was the most-watched morning show on cable news. 

On weekends, "Unfiltered with Dan Bongino" averaged 1.6 million viewers and 188,000 in the demo to finish No. 1 on Saturday, while "Sunday Morning Futures" averaged 2 million viewers and 254,000 among the demo to top Sunday cable new offerings. 

CNN’s weekend lineup attracted only 57,000 demo viewers for its smallest audience in the advertiser-coveted category in 25 years. 

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MSNBC’s "The Rachel Maddow Show" shed viewers during the namesake host’s first week of a temporary hiatus that left the network with a massive hole during a key hour of programing. Instead of alternate programming, MSNBC has continued to brand its 9 p.m. hour as "The Rachel Maddow Show," but with a series of rotating hosts.

Ali Velshi filled in for Maddow during the first week of her time away but failed to draw the audience that MSNBC’s biggest star typically attracts, averaging 1.5 million for a 26% drop compared to last week.