Despite Turmoil, Fox News Extends Winning Streak in 2nd Quarter of 2023, While MSNBC Posts Gains

Fox News extended its winning streak over MSNBC and CNN in the second quarter of 2023 to 9 consecutive quarterly wins in total day and prime time averages across the board and a whopping 86 consecutive quarterly wins in prime time.

MSNBC, however, has been closing the gap with Fox and boasted the rare distinction this quarter of being the only top-3 network to grow year over year. Cable news upstart NewsNation posted tripled digit gains year over year for the quarter, growing some 112 percent in total viewers and 111 percent in the demo. Newsmax also made significant gains, even notching some wins over CNN in the quarter, but both networks remain leaps and bounds behind the top three.

To say the quarter saw upheaval in the cable news industry would be an understatement. Both Fox and CNN went through dramatic moments as Dominion Voting Systems’s defamation lawsuit against Fox was settled for a stunning $787.5 million, top-rated opinion host Tucker Carlson was unceremoniously fired, as was CNN’s reformer CEO Chris Licht and controversial anchor Don Lemon.

MSNBC, on the other hand, managed to stay out of the headlines other than to break Fox’s 120-week streak of winning in prime time and besting CNN in the ratings during key breaking news events during the quarter, which are usually CNN’s bread and butter.

Fox led the quarter in total day viewers with 1.16 million and 140,000 in the key 25-54 age demographic – a 20 and 39 percent decline year over year, respectively. MSNBC landed in second place for the quarter with 796,000 average total day viewers and 95,000 in the demo – a 16 and 26 percent gain year over year.

CNN landed in third place with 463,000 average total daytime viewers for the quarter and 95,000 average viewers in the demo – an 11 and 15 percent drop year over year.

The quarter ended with Fox News announcing its new prime time lineup this week as the network moves to regain some of the traction it lost since Carlson’s ouster, dropping some 25 percent year over year in total viewers.

Fox’s The Five remained the top show on cable news for the quarter, now having won a record seven straight quarters – a first for a non-prime time program. Jesse Watters, Carlson’s 8 p.m. replacement, landed in second place for the quarter with 2.3 million average viewers – behind The Five’s average 2.8 million. Sean Hannity came in third with 2.2 million average viewers, leading prime time.

Rachel Maddow, whose show only airs on Mondays, averaged 2.4 million viewers. Maddow’s haul, however, was not enough to lift MSNBC over Hannity during the 9 p.m. hour. Chris Hayes won the 8 p.m. demo for the first time in the program’s history.

None of CNN’s programming broke into the top 30 shows on cable news during the quarter in total viewers, Anderson Cooper did land at number 16 in the demo, however. Erin Burnett and Wolf Blitzer also made the top 30 in the demo for the quarter. CNN did see an uptick in ratings in June, ending the quarter with 635,000 average prime time viewers for the month.

Here are the total day averages in total viewers and the 25-54 category for the 2nd quarter of 2023.

Total viewers:

CNN: 463,000

Fox 1.16 million

MSNBC: 796,000

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 95,000

Fox News: 140,000

MSNBC: 95,000

Here are the prime time averages — encompassing shows which air from 8-11 p.m. — for the second quarter of 2023.

Total viewers:

CNN: 573,000

Fox News: 1.69 million

MSNBC: 1.27 million

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 126,000

Fox News: 179,000

MSNBC: 139,000

Here are the total day averages in total viewers and the 25-54 category during the month of June.

Total viewers:

CNN: 492,000

Fox 1.09 million

MSNBC: 831,000

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 100,000

Fox News: 128,000

MSNBC: 97,000

Here are the prime time averages — encompassing shows which air from 8-11 p.m. —during the month of June.

Total viewers:

CNN: 635,000

Fox News: 1.49 million

MSNBC: 1.32 million

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 129,000

Fox News: 148,000

MSNBC: 144,000

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