Cable News Ratings RNC Night 3: Fox News Had More Total Viewers Than Broadcast Networks Combined

Fox News continued to lead the way in total viewers among cable news for the third night of the Republican National Convention while CNN stayed in second place for both total viewers and viewers in the advertiser-coveted age demographic of 25 to 54, according to early Nielsen Media Research. Fox News had 7.066 million total average viewers from 10 p.m. ET to 11:15 p.m ET, the period all three cable networks took the event live. That was more viewers than the broadcast networks — ABC, NBC and CBS — had combined in the slot. Of those, 1.383 million were in the advertiser coveted age demographic of 25 to 54. CNN had the second-highest number of total average viewers with 1.515 million and the second-highest number of demo viewers in cable with 487,000. MSNBC was third among the cable news networks and last among cable and broadcast, bringing in 1.480 million total average viewers and 311,000 between 25 and 54. In total across CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NBC, CBS and ABC, 15.703 million viewers watched the convention during the mass coverage period. During last week’s Democratic National Convention, about 21.4 million people watched the third night of programming across all six networks. The third night of the RNC in 2016 pulled in 7.34 million total average viewers for Fox News between 10 and 11, of whom 1.724 million were in the demo. CNN had 3.518 million total average viewers that year and 1.062 million, on average, between 25 and 54. MSNBC saw 1.983 million total average viewers that year, with just 555,000 in the demo.