The past year, 2024, was supposed to be a big audience uplift for major cable news networks: a presidential election, with proven ratings-getter Donald Trump as one of the major players.
While Fox News, MSNBC and CNN did see a rise in ratings, the latter two networks saw big post-election drop-offs as politics-weary viewers tuned out after Trump’s victory and Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss.
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The question for 2025 is whether those regular viewers come back after a bit of a break, as some executives expect, or if their habits turn to other sources, like ideologically friendly podcasts or digital streaming.
What’s more, the coming year will likely see major changes at MSNBC and CNN, as the former prepares to separate itself from the Comcast mothership, and the latter undergoes an overhaul to integrate CNN.com and digital video.
Fox News topped primetime in 2024, averaging 2.38 million viewers, up 30% from a year earlier. MSNBC averaged 1.22 million, up 1%, and CNN posted 685,000, up 18%. In the 25-54 news demo, Fox News was up 40% to an average of 294,000, followed by CNN with 147,000 up 17%, and MSNBC with 133,000 up 9%.
In total day, Fox News averaged 1.46 million viewers, up 21%, followed by MSNBC with 791,000, up 2%, and CNN with 481,000, which was flat. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 186,000, up 26%, followed by CNN with 91,000, down 3%, and MSNBC with 84,000, down 2%.
Since the election, Fox News said it has drawn 72% of the primetime cable news audience, with MSNBC averaging 576,000 viewers, down 57% from the period of 2024 up to Election Day, and CNN averaging 378,000, down 49%.
For the year, the highest-rated cable news show was Fox News’ The Five, averaging 3.4 million viewers, followed by Jesse Watters Primetime with 3.1 million, Hannity with 2.8 million, Gutfeld! with 2.54 million and The Ingraham Angle with 2.51 million. In the 25-54 demo, Gutfeld! topped with 355,000, followed by Jesse Watters with 352,000, Hannity with 341,000, The Five with 331,000 and Ingraham Angle with 278,000.
MSNBC touted its topping of CNN in total viewers during major news events, including the State of Union and Election Night. MSNBC said it averaged 34% more viewers in 2024 than in 2016, despite 28% fewer pay-TV households, and said it had its largest viewer advantage over CNN in network history. As for the post-election drop, MSNBC noted its viewership fell by 42% after the 2016 election, then went on to have four of its most-watched years in network history. The network’s highest-rated show in 2024 was The Rachel Maddow Show, averaging 2.5 million viewers and 240,000 in the 25-54 demo.
CNN’s hosting of the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Trump was the fifth most watched show of the year, drawing 52.7 million viewers, albeit simulcast across major networks. The network has been promoting its strength on digital platforms, with 147 million monthly unique users worldwide and 117 million in the U.S. CNN.com’s highest-performing story of the year was the exclusive video of Sean “Diddy” Combs physically assaulting Cassie Ventura in a hotel in 2016. The network’s most watched regular series was Anderson Cooper 360, averaging 748,000 viewers.
The figures, through December 29, are from Nielsen via Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.
MSNBC and CNN can take some solace in that Fox News also saw a viewer drop following Trump’s defeat in 2020, only to see a rebound as Biden took office. But the comparisons to 2023 are stark: In the past month, MSNBC averaged 660,000 primetime viewers, compared to almost 1.3 million in December 2023, as primary season was heating up. CNN averaged 392,000, compared to 505,000 during the same month a year ago. Fox News averaged 2.51 million, compared to 1.96 million in December, 2023.
In the 25-54 demo, MSNBC averaged 55,000 in the past month, compared to 114,000 in December 2023, while CNN averaged 69,000, compared to 108,000. Fox News averaged 292,000, compared to 214,000 a year earlier.
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