Fox Business Network finished the third quarter of 2016 with its highest rating ever, closing the gap with rival CNBC to its smallest in history.
“Lou Dobbs Tonight” and “Varney & Co” finished as the top two business news programs in cable, the first time FBN achieved the two highest-rated time slots in business news for an entire quarter.
“Varney & Co” averaged 193,00 total viewers for the quarter, beating CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” and “Squawk Alley,” which averaged 179,000 total viewers, by eight percent to pick up its first quarterly win in the 9 a.m.-12 p.m. ET time slot.
Lou Dobbs notched his third straight quarterly win over CNBC with 251,000 viewers, compared to 117,000. This is the ninth consecutive monthly win for Dobbs over CNBC. Every show on Fox Business from 9:30 a.m. through 5 p.m. ET set all-time highs, including “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” which averaged 180,000 viewers for its best quarter ever. That number is made all the more intriguing by the fact that its eponymous host, Neil Cavuto, took leave from the show for the majority of the quarter to recover from open-heart surgery.
Fox Business finished September closer to CNBC than it had since the network launched in 2007. FBN was also the No. 1 business TV news brand on Facebook and Instagram in total interactions for the quarter against CNBC and Bloomberg Business.
In addition, Fox Business Network averaged 673,000 total viewers and 141,745 demo viewers during Monday’s presidential debate to beat CNBC in the time slot.