TV Ratings: Cable News Suffers Viewership Declines

The cable news industry had an undeniably rough 2023, ending the tumultuous year with fewer eyeballs as cord-cutting continues to limit linear reach into American households and alternative news sources grab viewers.

Mediaite reports Fox News closed out the year on top, extending its reign as the most-watched cable television network for the 8th consecutive year. The network scored the top six shows in the cable news industry with The Five becoming the first non-prime time show to land at number one in both the key 25 to 54 age demographic and in total viewers. 2023 also marked Fox’s 22nd year in a row leading cable news in both total viewers and the demo in both total day and prime time viewers.

MSNBC was the only network to grow year over year in total viewers and solidified its spot as the second most-watched network on cable behind Fox with strong ratings for prime time hosts like Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell. MSNBC’s Morning Joe as well as early evening hosts Nicolle Wallace and Ari Melber also continue to be major ratings draws for the network, which benefited from Trump-heavy news cycles and former president’s ongoing legal dramas.

CNN, which changed leadership this year, has yet to see its ratings rebound and ended the year with its lowest numbers in total viewers since 2014 – hitting an all-time low in the demo.

MSNBC, which had its lowest-rated year in the demo since 1999, has the oldest audience of the big three cable news networks, with viewers averaging 70 in the fourth quarter of the year. Fox’s average viewer is 69, while CNN’s is 67 — up from 60 in 2017.  S&P Global Market Intelligence data puts Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC in only 70 million homes in the U.S. today, which is down from 90 million in 2016 as the cable business continues to contract.

While Fox has remained atop the industry, the network saw an 18 percent drop in year-over-year total viewers from 1.49 million to 1.2 million – its lowest total viewership since 2015. MSNBC averaged 784,000 total day viewers, up from 733,000 the year before. CNN, meanwhile, averaged 482,000 total day viewers, a 15 percent drop from 2022’s 568,000 average viewers.