TV Ratings: Weekends Surge For Cable TV News

For many Americans, the unrest sweeping through several cities this past weekend was reason enough to stay home and watch it on television.

Four million people saw coverage of the demonstrations on Fox News Channel at 10 p.m. on Saturday, not usually a big TV-watching time, The Associated Press reports citing Nielsen data.
An hour later, 3.2 million people were watching CNN’s coverage.

On a big news week, Fox News Channel had more than double the audience of its sister broadcast network, which was largely devoted to reruns during the first week of the summer season.

For the week, CBS averaged 3.7 million viewers in prime time. NBC had 3.3 million, ABC had 3.1 million, Fox had 1.41 million, Univision had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 780,000.

⏩ Broadcast TV Top 20 Prime-Time show (Total Viewers):

1. “America’s Got Talent,” NBC, 9.9 million.
2. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.68 million.
3. “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” ABC, 6.07 million.
4. “NCIS,” CBS, 5.63 million.
5. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 5.18 million.
6. “Man With a Plan,” CBS, 5.06 million.
7. “World of Dance,” NBC, 5 million.
8. “FBI,” CBS, 4.998 million.
9. “Mom,” CBS, 4.65 million.
10. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 4.63 million.

11. “Broke,” CBS, 4.45 million.
12. “Game On!,” CBS, 4.44 million.
13. “Hannity” (Friday), Fox News, 4.34 million.
14. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 4.26 million.
15. Movie: “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” CBS, 4.21 million.
16. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Thursday), Fox News, 4.14 million.
17. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Friday), Fox News, 4.13 million.
18. “90-Day Fiance: Before 90,” TLC, 4.06 million.
19. “Floyd Protest Coverage” (Saturday, 10 p.m.), Fox News, 4.01 million.
20. “Holey Moley,” ABC, 4 million.

ABC’s “World News Now” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 9.3 million viewers last week. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 8.3 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.7 million.

Fox News led the cable networks with an average of 3.38 million viewers in prime time last week. CNN had 2.33 million, MSNBC had 2 million, History had 1.44 million and HGTV had 1.28 million.

MONTH OF MAY

Covid-19 pandemic coverage, and more recently continuous coverage of nationwide protests spurred by the police murder of George Floyd, have lifted Fox News Channel to another stellar month in the ratings department.

TV Newser reports while the network wasn’t able to match its record-setting month of April, Fox News did finish May as the most-watched basic cable network in total day and prime-time. FNC has now finished as the No. 1 basic cable network in total day viewers for 47 consecutive months. That’s almost 4 straight years.

Versus its May 2019 ratings, a month without significant breaking news events, Fox News wrapped up May 2020 +44% in total prime-time viewers, +40% in total day viewers. The year-over-year comparison when it came to the A25-54 demo was more impressive, which makes sense considering breaking news usually brings younger viewers to cable news. FNC finished May 2020 as +48% in the prime-time demo and +41% in the total day demo versus May 2019.

Hannity, Tucker Carlson Tonight and The Ingraham Angle were all No. 1 in their respective timeslots. Hannity averaged 4.2 million viewers and 672,000 A25-54 viewers, No. 1 on cable news. Tucker Carlson Tonight was No. 1 on cable news among adults 25-54, averaging 700,000 viewers from that demographic in May.

The Five, The Ingraham Angle, and Special Report with Bret Baier round out the top 5 on cable news for the month of May.

Overall, Fox News claimed 12 of the top 15 cable news programs in total viewers, and 5 of the top 6 cable news programs in the A25-54 demo.