If viewers notice extra yelling on Fox News lately, it might be because two recent weeks were among the cable channel’s lowest-rated since before 9/11. The only weeks to do worse were Christmas’s 2012 and 2013.
During the week of May 5, 2014 — the most recent for which numbers are available — Fox News delivered an average of 180,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic in live-plus-same-day measurement across the total day. That measures programming from 6 a.m. until the following 6 a.m. Fox pulled the same number the previous week, the week of April 28.
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Over this past Christmas week, Fox News caught 176,000 viewers on average. The week of Dec. 24, 2012, Fox News pulled in 167,000.
The week of Sept. 3, 2001 saw an average of 95,000 viewers in the demo. The terrorist attacks a week later, obviously, created much more interest in cable news coverage.
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The good news for Fox: Even when it’s down, it still handily beats CNN and MSNBC across most ratings metrics.
In total viewers, Fox News Channel ranked No. 7 across total day. Competitors CNN and MSNBC ranked No. 36 and No. 31, respectively, for the week of May 5.