On Monday evening, when the United States launched airstrikes against Syria, Fox News and CNN saw big boosts in their ratings. MSNBC was down a hair in total viewers and up just a bit in the advertiser-sought 25-54 cable news demo.
It got worse on Tuesday, when MSNBC managed an average of just 59,000 demo viewers over Nielsen’s total day measurement, which encompasses 3 a.m. to 3 a.m.
MSNBC pulled in 364,000 total viewers over the course of the 24-hour period.
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By comparison, second-place CNN pulled in 603,000 total viewers, 177,000 in the demo.
Fox News Channel bested everyone with 1.303 million total viewers, 280,000 in the demographic.
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In primetime, which is 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., FNC led with 2.022 total viewers, with 388,000 coming from viewers 25-54.
CNN edged MSNBC overall with 652,000 total viewers to the latter’s 652,000. The demo was a much larger gap, with CNN’s 273,000 easily topping MSNBC’s 103,000.
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At 9 a.m., President Obama spoke on Syria, bringing in 1.668 million total viewers to Fox (404,000 in the demo).
CNN got 758,000 total viewers, with 204,000 in the demo. MSNBC was third there too with 329,000 total viewers and 68,000 in the demo.