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Tuesday, July 23, 2024

America Was Watching Fox Sunday For Biden Coverage


More than 9 million viewers flocked to their televisions Sunday afternoon to watch live broadcast and cable news coverage of President Biden’s bombshell decision that he would end his campaign for re-election and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, reports Forbes. The news broke just before 2 p.m. ET, dominating cable news and leading the broadcast networks to break into regular programming to cover the story.

Between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. ET, Fox News Channel had a total audience of 3.196 million viewers, the largest across the broadcast and cable news networks. CNN was second overall with 1.836 million viewers, followed closely by MSNBC (1.803 million viewers), ABC (1.306 million viewers) and CBS (1.116 million viewers).

Among viewers 25-54, the key demographic valued by advertisers, Fox News led between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. ET, with 564,000 viewers, followed by CNN (496,000 viewers), ABC (313,000 viewers), MSNBC (280,000 viewers), and CBS (244,000 viewers).

Viewership climbed rapidly as the news of Biden’s decision broke across television and social media, with Fox News delivering a total audience of 1.6 million viewers between 1:45 p.m. and 2 p.m. ET. FNC’s viewership doubled (3.2 million viewers) beginning at 2 p.m.

In prime time—dominated by coverage and analysis of Biden’s decision and the re-shaped contest against former President Donald Trump—Fox News had the largest audience in cable news, with 3.193 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (1.909 million viewers) and CNN (1.268 million viewers).

For MSNBC, which carried special programming between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET led by Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid and Jen Psaki, the network drew 2.1 million viewers and had its largest Sunday audience since 2020.

In the key demo, Fox was first in prime with 471,000 viewers, followed by CNN (334,000 viewers) and MSNBC (257,000 viewers).

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