End-of-month ratings show that Fox News maintained its status as the most-watched cable network in August, securing 94 of the top 100 telecasts.
According to Nielsen Media Research ratings data for August, Fox News averaged 2.5 million viewers in primetime from 8 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET. Of that, an average of 394,000 were in the advertiser-coveted age demographic of 25 to 54. CNN averaged 819,000 total primetime viewers but took second place in the demo with 191,000. MSNBC nabbed an average of 1.229 million total viewers, but only 163,000 in the demo. (Fox News was only counting live viewership, while non-news networks typically factor in three or even seven days of time-delayed viewing to measure a show’s performance.)
In total-day ratings, Fox News averaged 1.4 million viewers, of whom 238,000 were in the demo. CNN secured 621,000 average total-day viewers, with 136,000 in the demo, on average, while MSNBC averaged 732,000 total viewers, of whom 96,000 were in the demo.
Of the top 14 cable news programs in terms of total and demo viewers, Fox News held down 13.
The top five programs in cable news for the month were all Fox News’: “Tucker Carlson Tonight” averaged 3.302 million viewers, “The Five” averaged 3.106 million, “Hannity” averaged 3 million, “The Ingraham Angle” averaged 2.394 million and “Special Report with Bret Baier” averaged 2.186 million.
Those five were also the top five cable news shows in the demo, with “Carlson” averaging 551,000, “Hannity” averaging 503,000, “The Five” averaging 460,000, “The Ingraham Angle” averaging 410,000 and Baier’s “Special Report” averaging 349,000.
It was a big month for news as the Taliban took over Afghanistan and a hurricane tore apart American cities.