Fox News Channel has been the No. 1 cable news channel for 15 consecutive years after winning the month of January.
Fox News, which passed CNN back in January 2002, averaged 1.8 million viewers this month to beat ESPN among total viewers as the most-watched network among all of basic cable.
ESPN averaged 1.45 million viewers to finish second in a sports-heavy month, with Nickelodeon, HGTV and Adult Swim rounding out the top five. Among cable enws networks, CNN averaged 791,000 viewers to finished eighth and MSNBC averaged 645,000 viewers to finished No. 13.
Among primetime, ESPN averaged 3.88 million to finish No. 1, thanks to the College Football National Championship game. Fox News finished No. 2 by averaging 2.84 million viewers, while HGTV, USA and Discovery round out the top five primetime networks.
CNN finished ninth during primetime by averaging 1.164 million viewers, while MSNBC finished tenth with an average of 1.160 million. The month of January was good for cable news overall, as MSNBC grew 53 percent from Jan. 2016, while Fox News grew 45 percent and CNN grew 37 percent.
The month saw a shakeup among Fox News’ primetime lineup, but Megyn Kelly’s departure did not hurt ratings. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” averaged 3.7 million viewers since moving to Kelly’s old 9 pm. timeslot, a 50 percent increase compared to the timeslot in Jan. 2016. Additionally, “The First 100 Days,” anchored by Martha MacCallum, averaged 3.5 million viewers and was up 79 percent compared to the same timeslot last year.
FNC had 14 of the top 15 programs in cable news among total viewers, with only MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” joining “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” “The First 100 Days,” “The Five,” “Hannity,” “Special Report,” “Your World,” “America’s Newsroom,” “Outnumbered,” “Shepard Smith Reporting,” “Happening Now,” America’s News HQ,” the late-night “Factor” repeat and “Fox & Friends.”
CNN’s most-watched program was “Anderson Cooper 360,” which finished No. 17.