Posted in: Fox, streaming, TV | Tagged: cnn, fox news, msnbc, opinion
MSNBC Ratings Rise?!? CNN Ratings? Ouch! FOX "News" Numbers Take Hit
The ratings for the second quarter of 2023 were good news for MSNBC and concerning for FOX "News." As for CNN? Let's just say... ouch.
Okay… something weird is going on. It's not on the level of a plague of locusts, frogs falling from the sky, or the stigmata marks on my hands beginning to bleed… but it's something that we see about as often. While FOX "News" still remains the most watched cable (alleged) news channel in total daytime & primetime numbers, the propaganda machine actually saw its ratings drop during the second quarter of 2023. And so did CNN, which was a growing train wreck under Chris Licht's reported "leadership" until recently. But while both of those are surprising – the biggest jaw-dropper? MSNBC actually saw its ratings… wait for it… rise. Seriously. As in, they went up – the opposite direction from down. In fact, the news channel saw a 16% increase in total day viewers (an average of 796,000 viewers) when compared to this point last year – and a 23% gain in the key 25-54 advertising demographic (140,000 viewers). Shining a spotlight on the primetime hours, MSNBC saw 1.26 million viewers overall, and 139,000 viewers in the key 25-54 advertising demographic – both double-digit jumps from 2022.
As we said, FOX "News" was still top of the heap – but having to pay out on that Dominion settlement and dumping Tucker Carlson definitely took their toll. Rupert Murdoch's baby saw a 20% drop in overall daytime viewers and a 39% drop in the key demo as compared to last year. And then there's CNN, having survived a Licht run that included a controversial town hall meeting/infomercial for Donald Trump. With daytime, the news channel averaged only 463,000 total day viewers (a drop of 11% from the previous year) and saw a 16% drop in the key demo ratings. Primetime didn't make things any better, with CNN suffering a 14% drop in total viewers and a 19% drop in the key demo year-over-year (though the number of nighttime viewers did see a slight increase). Along with CNN, far-right propaganda machine Newmax and alleged "middle of the road" NewsNation also saw dramatic growth over the previous quarter.