Fox News took President Donald Trump’s Saturday rally live when CNN and MSNBC did not and, in doing so, the conservative-leaning network secured the top-rated non-entertainment telecast in primetime for the week.
During rally coverage starting in the 8 p.m. ET hour, Fox News averaged 7,661,000 million viewers, of whom 1,536,000 were in the advertiser-coveted age demographic of 25 to 54.
According to weekly Nielsen ratings, Fox News was also the most-watched network in all of cable for the 24th straight week in total-day and 22nd week in primetime.
The appetite for news was strong overall this week: All three major cable news networks held the top spots in the top five basic cable channels from June 15 to 21, both in total day and primetime.
Fox News was in first place with an average of 3,798,000 average primetime viewers for the week and 1,766,000 average total-day viewers. MSNBC took second place in total viewership, averaging 2,022,000 primetime viewers and 1,205,000 total-day. In third place was CNN with 1,665,000 average primetime viewers and 1,068,000 average total-day viewers. HGTV took fourth place in both while TLC had the fifth-highest primetime numbers and Hallmark Channel brought in the fifth-highest total day average.
Among the advertiser-coveted age demographic of 25-t0-54, Fox News was still in first place for both primetime and total-day, but CNN took second place to MSNBC’s third. Fox News’ key demo average in primetime was 694,000 and for total-day it was 324,000. CNN brought in an average of 444,000 viewers between 25 and 54 during primetime for the week and an average of 279,000 across the total day. MSNBC’s demo total for primetime for the week was 287,000. For total day, MSNBC brought in an average of 279,000 demo viewers.