Fox Corporation’s cable news outlet Fox News Channel drew a stronger prime-time audience across overall and key audience demographics during Nielsen’s most-recent measurement week, outpacing legacy broadcast networks like CBS and ABC with its strong slate of commentary-driven programming.
According to data reviewed by The Desk, Fox News averaged more than 2.4 million viewers during prime-time from Monday through Friday, according to seven-day figures associated with the measurement week that started on July 6. The network’s audience was around 20 percent higher compared to CBS, while ABC averaged 2.1 million viewers.
The gap narrowed when weekend programming was included, though Fox News still finished ahead of both broadcast networks: Fox News averaged 2.1 million viewers in prime-time throughout the week, compared with 1.95 million viewers for CBS and 1.9 million viewers for ABC.
In late night, CBS was easily passed by Fox News: The network’s insistence on airing paid programming through an arrangement with comedian Byron Allen drew a predictably smaller audience compared to new episodes of “Gutfeld!” on the cable news outlet. Gutfeld! drew 2.6 million viewers during the week, while “Comics Unleashed” on CBS couldn’t pull in more than 809,000 viewers.
“The Five” was the most-watched program on Fox News with more than 3.3 million viewers and 279,000 viewers ages 25 to 54. “Special Report with Bret Baier” averaged 2.6 million total viewers, while “Jesse Watters Primetime” drew nearly 2.6 million. “The Ingraham Angle” delivered more than 2.4 million viewers and “Hannity” averaged nearly 2.1 million.
Fox News also reported strong daytime performance against broadcast television. “America’s Newsroom,” “The Faulkner Focus,” “Outnumbered,” “America Reports,” “The Story with Martha MacCallum” and “The Will Cain Show” each drew larger audiences than NBC’s “Today with Jenna & Sheinelle,” which averaged 1.4 million viewers, and ABC’s “GMA3,” which reached 1.5 million viewers.
Among broadcast networks, Fox dominated the week, attracting more than 9.1 million viewers between July 6 and July 12. Its coverage of the FIFA World Cup men’s soccer tournament boosted Fox’s overall ratings, according to Nielsen data. NBC ranked in third place, drawing 2.3 million viewers, while CBS was third with 2.06 million viewers.
In Spanish-language broadcasting, Telemundo topped the list nearly 2 million viewers during the week. As with Fox, Telemundo was largely served by its Spanish broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup men’s soccer tournament, which also stream on NBC’s Peacock. Univision ranked in a distant second place with an average audience of 852,000 viewers, followed by Univision-owned Unimas with 178,000 viewers.
