Fox News Channel crushed cable news competition last week as liberal networks MSNBC and CNN struggled to attract younger viewers who are coveted by advertisers. 

Fox News averaged 1.2 million viewers from June 7-13 to finish No. 1 among all of basic cable while no other networks cracked the one-million viewer benchmark. ESPN finished second by averaging 783,000 viewers and MSNBC came in third. TNT and HGTV joined them among the top five and CNN settled for sixth place by averaging only 557,000 viewers. 

"Tucker Carlson Tonight" averaged 2.8 million viewers to finish the week as the most-watched show in cable news.

"Tucker Carlson Tonight" averaged 2.8 million viewers to finish the week as the most-watched show in cable news.

The NBA-playoff heavy TNT averaged 2.2 million primetime viewers to barely edge Fox News for first place during the hours of 8-11 p.m. ET during the same timeframe. Fox News finished second with 2.16 million viewers, followed by ESPN, MSNBC, HGTV and TBS. 

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CNN’s struggling primetime lineup of Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon and scandal-plagued Chris Cuomo averaged only 776,000 primetime viewers to finish tenth. 

Fox News has now topped both MSNBC and CNN as the most-watched cable news network among both total day and primetime viewers for 17-straight weeks. While Fox News has been thumping CNN on a regular basis, the past week marked its greatest percent advantage over CNN in both categories since September 2020 with triple-digit percent advantages. 

"Tucker Carlson Tonight" averaged 2.8 million viewers to finish the week as the most-watched show in cable news, "The Five" outdrew everything CNN and MSNBC had to offer despite its 5 p.m. ET timeslot. "Unfiltered with Dan Bongino" averaged 1.5 million viewers to become the most-watched weekend program in cable news, while "Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy" averaged 1.2 million viewers to defeat everything CNN and MSNBC had to offer over the weekend. 

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Meanwhile, MSNBC continued to find it difficult to attract younger viewers as the network has dropped outside the top ten most-watched basic cable stations among the key demographic of adults age 25-54 that are desirable for advertisers. 

Fox News averaged 197,000 demo viewers to finish fourth among all of basic cable, while CNN managed to finish No. 10 with an average of 129,000 viewers in the crucial category. However, MSNBC settled for only 100,000 demo viewers to finish No. 20 behind a variety of networks including TV Land, MTV, FX, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, A&E and Bravo. 

Both CNN and MSNBC struggled to attract viewers among the key demo during primetime, as Fox News averaged 331,000 viewers between ages 25-54 from 8-11 p.m. but CNN averaged only 177,000 and MSNBC managed only 175,000 nightly primetime viewers in the category. 

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Food Network, Adult Swim, Freeform and A&E are among the networks to outdraw both CNN and MSNBC as the liberal networks are having a hard time attracting younger viewers. 

All data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research.