There has been a continued dominance of Fox News from rival cable news channels over the past few weeks, with the network beating out MSNBC and CNN combined in total viewership on Thursday.
According to Mediaite, “Fox News averaged 1.54 million total day viewers and 178,000 demo viewers to land in first place.”
“MSNBC brought in an average of 852,000 total day viewers and 90,000 demo viewers to come in second. CNN, meanwhile, averaged 403,000 total day viewers and 78,000 demo viewers for third,” the report said.
In the overall rankings, right-leaning Newsmax came in fourth, followed closely by NewsNation, where former CNN primetime host Chris Cuomo has a show, which came in fifth overall.
Starting with “The Five,” Fox’s prime-time shows blew away their competition, and Fox’s success continued throughout the year.
As for the top three networks, here are Thursday’s numbers:
Total viewers:
CNN: 403,000
Fox News: 1.54 million
MSNBC: 852,000
25-54 Demo:
CNN: 78,000
Fox News: 178,000
MSNBC: 90,000
Below is a list of the primetime figures for both the overall audience and the key demo audience (ages 35-54):
25-54 Demo:
CNN: 78,000
Fox News: 245,000
MSNBC: 118,000
The highest-rated cable news program last week was Carlson’s show, with 3.09 million viewers and 365,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic in the US. He streamed video footage of a protest on January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol Building, which received a total audience of 3.09 million viewers and 365,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic.
“That audience was enough to beat out the usual top show in cable news, Fox News’s The Five, as well as beat the competition on MSNBC and CNN by miles. In total viewers, Carlson tripled the 8 p.m. competition on MSNBC and sextupled his CNN rival. In the demo, Carlson more than tripled both MSNBC and CNN,” Mediaite reported.
On another night last week, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” brought in a whopping 4.1 million total viewers. Fox News prime time soared to over 3 million average viewers throughout the day, destroying competition.
“The very strong prime time number was anchored by Tucker Carlson, who brought in 4.14 million total viewers as his show sparked controversy on Monday night for his Jan. 6th coverage. Fox prime time doubled MSNBC’s average of 1.49 million total viewers and brought in more than six times the viewers of CNN. CNN’s prime time average came in at 451,000 total viewers,” Mediaite reported.
It was not well received by everyone when he showed the footage, however.
In response to the airing of the previously unseen security footage, the US Capitol Police chief issued a memo to his staff, which showed military and police officers appearing to stand passively by as a large crowd entered the Capitol building.
Police Chief Tom Manger condemned the comments made during the airing of the footage on Carlson’s Monday night program, stating that it was “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions” about the riot of January 6, 2021, when a group of people breached the U.S. Capitol building, causing disruptions to lawmakers who were in the process of certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
“The program conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video,” Manger claimed. “The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments.”
According to the Manger, Capitol Police “maintains, as anyone with common sense would, that had Officer Sicknick not fought valiantly for hours on the day he was violently assaulted, Officer Sicknick would not have died the next day.”
Manger also praised and thanked the Capitol Police force on duty that day, commending their efforts on January 6.
“You fought like hell on January 6 and risked your lives to protect the Constitution and everything this country stands for,” he wrote. “You, along with our law enforcement partners, saved every member of Congress and their staff.”
The move by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Ky) to provide Carlson with previously undisclosed surveillance video has been criticized by Democrats and some Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“It was a mistake in my view for Fox News to depict this in a way that is completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks,” McConnell said, USA Today reported.