The ratings are in, and Fox News is officially the winner of the 2024 election, TheWrap has exclusively learned. From Nov. 4 to 10, the network was the No. 1 network on all of television with weekday primetime viewers, beating both its cable and broadcast competitors.
During weekday primetime ratings for the week, which monitor 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET, Fox News Channel averaged 5.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. Fox News was followed by ABC, which led the broadcast networks with an average of 4.9 million viewers. As for CBS and NBC, both averaged 4.1 million viewers.
In total day from Monday to Sunday, Fox News reported an average of 2.6 million viewers and 472,000 in the 25-54 demo. This marked Fox News’ best week across both primetime and total day since November 2020. Overall, the network commanded 60% of the cable news audience share in both total day and primetime compared to CNN’s 16% and MSNBC’s 21%.
Looking at the total week, in primetime from Monday to Sunday, Fox News averaged 4.3 million viewers and 872,000 in the demo. Comparatively, during that same time period, MSNBC averaged 1.58 million viewers as well as 356,000 viewers in the demo.
MSNBC’s ratings decline is not new. From last Wednesday to Friday, the network saw a 54% decrease in the network’s viewership average compared to the month of October (1.765 million viewers) as well as a 51% decrease in the network’s year-to-date 2024 average (1.655 million viewers).
Fox News’ high average was bolstered by the network’s staggering election night performance, during which the network saw 10.3 million total viewers and 3.1 million viewers in the demo. In fact, on Election Day, Fox News Media saw nearly 13.6 million viewers and 4.4 million in the 25-54 demo across Fox News Channel, Fox Network, Fox Business Network and Fox News Digital. Led by “Special Report” host Bret Baier and “The Story” anchor Martha MacCallum, coverage for the network peaked during the 10 p.m. ET hour with 10.8 million viewers and 3.3 million in the demo.
These high numbers continued across several Fox News shows. “Gutfeld!,” “The Five,” “The Faulkner Focus” and “America Reports” all saw their highest-rated weeks on the network since launch. “Gutfeld!” saw 3.8 million viewers and 627,000 in the demo. During the week, it beat the averages for CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (2 million), ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (1.7 million) and NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (1.2 million). It should be noted that “Gutfeld!” airs at 10 p.m. ET, whereas “The Late Show,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Tonight Show” premiere at 11:35 p.m. ET. Also, “Gutfeld!” is a cable network show while the other three are on broadcast networks. This is all to say, this is not a perfect apples-to-apples ratings match.
Meanwhile, “The Five” saw 5.3 million, and “The Faulkner Focus” and “America Reports” averaged 3 million viewers and 2.8 million viewers, respectively. Both “The Faulkner Focus” and “Outnumbered” also saw a higher viewership average than ABC’s “The View.”
