No Bill O’Reilly, no problem?
Fox News Channel (FNC) again topped all of cable last week in both total day (1.5 million viewers, on average) and primetime (2.4 million) viewership averages. That marks the 15th straight week the right-leaning news net won on a 24-hour basis, per Nielsen. For primetime, Fox News has been No. 1 for 12 out of the past 13 weeks.
Fox News came out on top despite a drop in ratings for the network’s top dog show “The O’Reilly Factor.” Host Bill O’Reilly was only on the air Monday and Tuesday — he was out on vacation the rest of the week. The show continued to air in the time slot Wednesday through Friday with guests hosts Dana Perino, Eric Bolling, and Greg Gutfeld, but the show saw an overall drop ratings drop of 26%.
Bolling saw the highest viewership of the three with 3.11 million, while Gutfeld came in last with 2.32 million, according to Nielsen.
It was a good time to go away, as O’Reilly has been skewered over a report that he settled numerous sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior claims out of court. His high-rated show has since lost a ton of sponsorship, leading some to wonder if he’ll even be back at all.
Here are the stats for April 10 through April 16, 2017:
Basic Cable Top 5 – Primetime Total Viewers
1. FNC (2,380,000)
2. MSNBC (1,515,000)
3. HGTV (1,464,000)
4. TNT (1,411,000)
5. ESPN (1,331,000)
Basic Cable Top 5 – Total Day Total Viewers
1. FNC (1,542,000)
2. NICK (1,097,000)
3. HGTV (831,000)
4. MSNBC (793,000)
5. ADULT SWIM (774,000)
Readers will notice no CNN listed above. The Turner cable news channel ranked No. 11 in primetime (976,000 total viewers) and eighth in total day (751,000 viewers).