The Fox News Channel ended January as the most-watched cable news channel in America, delivering its highest single-month ratings for a January measurement period, according to Nielsen ratings.
The channel entered its 23rd consecutive year as the number one cable news channel in overall and key demographic ratings across the weekday schedule and in prime-time.
From 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Time, Fox News delivered an average daily audience of 2.8 million viewers, including 353,000 viewers among adults between the ages of 25 and 54 years old (A25-54), the demographic most-attractive to cable news advertisers. Its year-over audience growth was logged at 40 percent in total viewership and 61 percent among A25-54 viewers.
In total-day programming, Fox News attracted an average daily audience of nearly 2 million viewers, including 253,000 in the A25-54 demographic, representing a 53 percent year-over increase in total viewers and a 70 percent bump among A25-54 viewers.
“As we mark 23 years as America’s most watched cable news network, I would like to thank our incredible team both on and off the camera for their dedication to delivering the best product in news,” Suzanne Scott, the CEO of Fox News Media, said in a statement. “Each year, we surpass new milestones, continue to innovate, and outperform the competition due to their tireless efforts and I could not be prouder.”
Fox News had the top 270 individual cable news episodes across its programming and commands the top 603 one-hour block telecasts in the post-election period between November 6, 2024 and January 26, 2025. The network has 71 percent of the cable news audience relative to CNN, MSNBC, NewsNation and Newsmax.
At the same time, CNN and MSNBC continue to experience post-election viewership erosion. In January, MSNBC’s A25-54 audience dropped to 45,000 viewers in total day and 63,000 viewers during prime-time hours. CNN was not too far ahead, scoring just 80,000 A25-54 viewers during the day and 118,000 viewers in prime-time.
MSNBC and CNN continue to ready parts of their business for seismic editorial and distribution shifts. MSNBC is one of several cable networks owned by Comcast that is being spun off from NBC Universal, a move that could lead the network to lose the editorial resources of NBC News. CNN is shifting its editorial operations to prioritize digital distribution, including through its website, apps and social media; the network recently enacted a subscription model that places most of its original reporting behind a paywall online, and is in the process of developing a direct-to-consumer streaming service (for the second time).
Last week, CNN began laying off around 200 employees as part of its post-election shift toward digital news distribution. NBC News is in the process of letting go of some newsroom workers, though the number of job losses is expected to be lower at NBC News compared to CNN.
