The past few weeks have seen an insane deluge of news, none more significant than the atrocities committed against Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists and the war that has since broken out. There are also the ongoing indictments and trials of former President Donald Trump, chaos in the House of Representatives as Republicans fail to elect a new speaker, and the early days of the 2024 primary campaign.
It has been nothing short of a Lucille Ball conveyor belt of news, which has made it tough for anchors, editors, reporters, and programmers to not just keep up with a firehouse of news items but to bring perspective through priority.
In this milieu, a more moderate cable news network has significantly increased its audience: NewsNation.
Roughly two years into its existence — and bringing a “centrist news for the rest of us” approach that has its fair share of skeptics — NewsNation’s recent success is a good sign for traditional journalism in a political media ecosystem that rewards extremism over dispassionate reporting and analysis.
***Disclaimer: Yes, I am the media analyst and a paid contributor to NewsNation, so please feel free to take this argument with whatever serving of salt you prefer. In much the same manner that CNN’s Oliver Darcy touts his employer’s “muscular” graphics, or Howard Kurtz defends Fox News, this is an appraisal of a network on which I appear regularly. Much respect for Oliver and Howie, btw.***
In the first week that followed the October 7 attack in Israel, NewsNation saw its highest-rated week in total day viewership and the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic. And that was not just an outlier event — the following week, the relatively nascent network matched its most-watched week, posting the very same numbers for a second straight week.
In total day, NewsNation delivered its highest-rated average to date. In fact, compared to the most recent full quarter, NewsNation was up double-digits across the board – up +27% in total viewers and up +13% in the demo.
In prime time, NewsNation was also up double-digits across the board Monday through Friday compared to third quarter – delivering 126,000 total viewers and 20,000 in demo. The channel was up +20% in total viewers and up +17% in the all-important younger demo. Compared to the same week a year ago, primetime ratings are up nearly 50% in both categories, up +49% in total viewers and up +42% in A25-54.
NewsNation ranked #62 in all of cable, outpacing decades-old brands like National Geographic Wildlife, Nickelodeon Jr., GOLF, and Fox Business, among others.
Now, anyone paying close attention to cable news ratings knows that those numbers are still behind the big three: Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. NewsNation is just a toddler compared to its full-grown competitors, and so perhaps a more useful comparison is to consider ratings from when both Fox News and MSNBC turned two years old.
Both MSNBC and Fox News launched in 1996, and reliable ratings data from that mostly analog era is challenging to come by. However, according to an archived Nielsen Media Research published by Pew Research, we can dig up some comparable numbers. MSNBC had 122,000 dayside viewers in October 1999, while Fox News had 85,000 dayside viewers, roughly two years into Fox’s existence. At that time, MSNBC had existed for three years and averaged 205,000 viewers in prime time, while Fox averaged 244,000.
Yes, those are more significant numbers than NewsNation has after two years, but it is worth pointing out that it was an entirely different era. There was no streaming, cable-cutters, or mighty YouTubers to compete with. That time also coincided with the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, which probably did more to launch partisan cable news programming than any other single news cycle.
But ratings aficionados also know the trend line of viewers is just as, if not more, critical than total viewers, particularly in the context of a brand new cable network that many people still don’t know how to find on their cable guide. More people tuning in over time is a good sign of the health of a growing network — regardless of where its audience stands compared to the cable news behemoths.
NewsNation was launched in 2020 by Nexstar and WGN-America as a three-hour broadcast. In 2021, a full slate of prime time programming launched, including the show Dan Abrams Live, hosted by the Mediaite founder and owner Dan Abrams. He was later joined by CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Leland Vittert, Elizabeth Vargas, and Ashleigh Banfield, who rounded out prime time. In 2022, the network added dayside programming to complete the traditional cable news offering.
The network’s mission is to present a cable news network “for the rest of us.” That is to say, a reliable news outlet that doesn’t identify with or cater to one side of the political aisle.
What is it about the past two weeks that have had such a flood of new viewers check out the new network on the dial? I suspect part of it is just that there are a lot of cable news viewers who’ve grown weary of the same pundits saying much of the same things night in and night out. But I also think there is something specific to this news cycle as well, however challenging it has been to follow.
NewsNation’s core mission is a “bring the temperature down” approach to dispassionate and fact-based journalism. Bringing moral clarity to stories that are really challenging to get one’s head around. And that’s been something of an oasis of reason for a news cycle where the temperature is already way up. It’s also evidence that there is still very much a market of cable news viewers seeking dispassionate reporting and smart analysis from a non-partisan perspective.
Much of what you now see on cable news is designed to appeal to the extremes. Partisan opinion is rewarded in a manner that sows division and instigates political incompetence (see: the new House Speaker). To be clear, NewsNation’s programs offer voice and a point of view. It’s just often a unique one because the facts of the events drive the perspective, not blind partisanship dedicated to the wins and losses of Ds and Rs.
It is still early days, but the NewsNation experiment is faring well. And thank goodness — the body politic could use a strong dose of sanity in the cable news industry.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
