Debut of ‘Unfiltered with Dan Bongino’ helps Fox News outdraw CNN, MSNBC for 16th straight week

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Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable news network among both total day and primetime viewers for the 16th straight week as a pair of new programs helped the channel maintain the top spot. 

Fox News was the only basic cable network to surpass the one-million viewer benchmark, averaging 1.1 million to finish as the most-watched cable network from May 31 through June 6. 

"Unfiltered with Dan Bongino" and "Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy" debuted over the weekend and both dominated CNN and MSNBC’s offerings.  

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Bongino’s program finished as the most-watched cable news program of the week over the weekend and outdrew CNN and MSNBC combined. "Unfiltered" averaged 1.8 million viewers to beat CNN by a staggering 248 percent and MSNBC by 308 percent during the show’s inaugural episode at 10 p.m. ET on Saturday. 

Gowdy’s show averaged 1.3 million viewers during its debut on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, topping CNN by 160 percent and MSNBC by 177 percent. As Bongino and Gowdy helped Fox News maintain its advantage on weekends, "Tucker Carlson Tonight," "The Five" and "Hannity" continued to crush the competition on weekdays. 

"Tucker" was the most-watched show in cable news, averaging 2.7 million viewers, while "The Five" averaged 2.5 million and "Hannity" averaged 2.4 million to dominate their timeslots. In fact, "The Five" outdrew anything CNN and MSNBC had to offer regardless of timeslot despite airing at 5 p.m. ET. 

The NBA playoffs-heavy TNT averaged 2.4 million viewers during the hours of 8-11 p.m. to finish first in that category, as Fox News finished second with an average of two million primetime viewers. 

MSNBC, HGTV and ESPN rounded out the top five, as CNN’s struggling primetime lineup of Anderson Cooper, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon averaged a dismal 779,000 to finish outside the top ten most-watched primetime networks. NBC Sports Network, TLC and History were among the networks to outdraw CNN as viewers continue to ditch the liberal network. 

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Fox News also trounced CNN and MSNBC among the key news demographic of adults age 25-54, averaging 189,000 total viewers and 296,000 sets of eyeballs during primetime from the group most coveted by advertisers. 

With the victory, FNC finished with its biggest advantage over CNN among the key demo in total day viewers since September 2020, topping the hyper-partisan network by over 150 percent in primetime and 100 percent in total day viewers. 

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CNN and MSNBC both finished with their least-watched weeks among total day and primetime in the demo since December 2019 as the liberal networks struggle to attract younger viewers during the Biden era. 

All data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research.