Fox News captures 73% of primetime cable news audience as MSNBC, CNN face post-election tumble
Fox News Channel has seen a surge in its share of primetime cable news viewers as the audiences of liberal networks MSNBC and CNN continue bleeding following the presidential election.
Since the Nov. 5 election through Thursday, Fox News has captured a whopping 73% of all cable news primetime viewers, including 71% in the advertiser-coveted demo ages 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Fox News has averaged 3.2 million total primetime viewers, a 34% increase from before the election of President-elect Donald Trump and 417,000 in the key demo, a hefty 46% increase.
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CNN, meanwhile, has averaged only 469,000 total primetime viewers, shedding 35% of its pre-election audience, and just 99,000 in the key demo, a 36% loss.
However, MSNBC has endured the biggest losses over CNN despite having a larger total audience. Its primetime programming has averaged 702,000 total viewers since the election, a whopping 47% drop, and only 69,000 in the key demo, hemorrhaging more than half versus pre-election.
Fox News maintains its dominance across total daytime programming, averaging 2 million total viewers since the election, while MSNBC and CNN have averaged just 368,000 and 527,000 respectively.
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Perhaps getting the most attention this week is the viewership revolt against MSNBC's marquee morning program "Morning Joe" after its co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed they had met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, something that has upset its far-left fan base.
MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" has averaged 1.1 million total viewers from 6-9 a.m. ET in 2024, but Monday’s audience fell to 769,000 as liberal viewers changed the channel after the powwow with Trump was revealed.
On Tuesday, the audience shrunk again with 683,000 average total viewers tuning in, and it shriveled even more on Wednesday when it averaged only 618,000 total viewers.
Thursday's audience among the key demo was 55% lower than its pre-election viewership.
Both CNN and MSNBC face uncertain futures as CNN is expected to face mass layoffs and budget cuts in the coming months as MSNBC is being spun off by its parent company Comcast along with several other cable networks, marking a corporate divorce from its sister network NBC News, which will be finalized next year.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.