Fox News was the most-watched cable news network during Monday’s coverage of the situation in Afghanistan, according to Nielsen Media Research ratings data. The 5:15 p.m. ET Pentagon briefing helped bump the network’s “The Five” into the top spot for all of cable news for the day.
Also notable was viewership during President Joe Biden’s first address to the country after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul. It took place in the 4 p.m. ET hour, during which Fox News averaged 3.482 million total viewers, of whom a little over 615,000 were in the advertiser-coveted age demographic of 25 to 54. CNN nabbed 1.758 million total average viewers at that time, with about 441,000 in the demo while MSNBC got 1.548 million total viewers, on average, and a demo total of around 243,000.
Here’s how the other numbers broke down: The 5 p.m. ET hour, which featured the Pentagon briefing, brought Fox News 3.885 million viewers, on average, of whom about 650,000 were in the demo. CNN had 1.299 million average viewers at that time with almost 359,000 demo viewers and MSNBC saw 1.238 million total average viewers with over 187,000 demo viewers.
In primetime from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., Fox News averaged 3.364 million total viewers. Of those, nearly 645,000 were in the demo. CNN’s primetime total in average viewers was 1.173 million while its demo primetime viewers numbered around 338,000. MSNBC took second place in total average viewers in primetime with 1.603 million, but fell to third in the demo with almost 226,000.