Fox News Dominates Among Younger Age Demographic in August — With 15 of Top 20 Shows on Cable News
Fox News continued its streak as the number one network in all of cable news August, notably dominating the key 25-54 age demographic with 15 of the 20 top shows.
The top three cable news networks, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN, saw a drop in the younger demographic from last August, when news coverage was dominated by the unfolding events of President Joe Biden’s disastrous pull-out from Afghanistan, which boosted ratings and explains the across-the-board year-over-year drop.
The drop in demo viewership was particularly noticeable during prime time as all three networks were down roughly 20 percent from last year. CNN saw its total day demo viewership drop 21 percent year over year for the month, while Fox news was down 12 percent and MSNBC was down 9 percent.
In terms of total day viewership, Fox News was up 4 percent, while MSNBC was up 10 percent. CNN was down 10 percent in terms of total viewers year over year for the month.
In prime time, only MSNBC saw growth in total viewers with a 5 percent increase. Fox News was down 6 percent and CNN was down 11 percent compared to August 2021.
Overall in the demo, Fox News’s programming outpaced its competition.
Tucker Carlson Tonight landed in first place for the month averaging 486,000 demo viewers, followed by The Five’s 427,000 demo viewers. Hannity rounded out the top three with 397,000 demo viewers, while Gutfeld! and The Ingraham Angle tied for 4th with 358,000 demo viewers.
Gutfeld! finished the month as the first late-night cable show to beat out its broadcast competition as the Greg Gutfeld-hosted comedy show topped CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for the month.
Gutfeld! is not a traditional late-night show, however, as it airs 30 minutes earlier than Colbert on the East Coast and at 10 p.m. central and 8 p.m. on the West Coast as the show airs live.
Jesse Watters landed in sixth place, with Bret Baier in seventh.
Rachel Maddow had one of the two MSNBC shows inside the top 20 in the demo with 292,000 average demo viewers for her Monday-only show, landing her at eighth place.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper came in 17th place with 192,000 demo viewers for the month, giving the veteran host the top-rated CNN show in the demo.
Cooper was followed by Erin Burnett’s 179,000 demo viewers. CNN and MSNBC’s 9 p.m. programs, CNN Tonight and MSNBC Prime, came in 19th and 20th in the demo – respectively.
MSNBC finally filled its 9 p.m. hour with Alex Wagner Tonight, which debuted on August 16th with a solid 2 million viewers. While Alex Wagner appeared to be off to a strong start, she has yet to recapture the numbers of Maddow.
Sean Hannity continued to dominate the 9 p.m. hour after Wagner’s debut and more than doubled her in the demo for the second half of the month.
Fox News finished off the month as the third highest-rated network in all of television and beat CNN and MSNBC combined in both the demo and in terms of total viewers.
Here are the total day averages in total viewers and the 25-54 category for the month of August
Total Day viewers:
CNN: 561,000
Fox: 1.49 million
MSNBC: 804,000
25-54 Demo:
CNN: 110,000
Fox News: 211,000
MSNBC: 89,000
Here are the prime time averages — encompassing shows which air from 8-11 p.m. — in total viewers and the 25-54 demo for the month of August.
Total viewers:
CNN: 733,000
Fox News: 2.34 million
MSNBC: 1.30 million
25-54 Demo:
CNN: 153,000
Fox News: 311,000
MSNBC: 134,000
