Fox News notched its highest-ever primetime viewership for the month of April, and “Special Report With Bret Baier” became the top show in cable for the first time ever thanks to its airing of the daily White House coronavirus briefings, according to Nielsen ratings data.
In primetime, from 8 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET, Fox News was up 54% from last April with 3.681 average viewers. Of those, 671,000 were in the advertiser-coveted age demographic of 25 to 54. MSNBC was in second place during that time slot, bringing in 2.038 million viewers, though it fell to third place in the demo, bringing in just 336,000 viewers between 25 and 54. CNN saw 1.948 million tune in between 8 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET and took second place in the demo with 580,000. Overall, CNN saw the highest increases in primetime viewership with a 154% increase in total viewers over last April and a 193% increase in that key demo.
That trend was true for total-day viewership, too. With 1.360 million total viewers, CNN increased 150% over last April. The 395,000 viewers who were in the key demo across the total day gave CNN a 180% increase. Still, Fox News led the way in total-day viewers with 2.237 million overall and 448,000 between 25 and 54. MSNBC was in last place by both metrics, bringing in 1.284 million average total-day viewers, only 216,000 of whom were in the demo.
“Special Report With Bret Baier” was the top-rated cable program overall, with 5.264 million total average viewers watching the 6 p.m. ET broadcast, which aired while President Donald Trump held his coronavirus briefings. Of those viewers, 1.080 million were in the 25-to-54 demo.
Notably, Fox News’ “The Greg Gutfeld Show,” which airs Saturday nights at 10 p.m. ET, was the most-watched late-night program in television in terms of total viewership, bringing in 2.9 million viewers. It topped all broadcast and cable comedy programs, including CBS’, NBC’s and ABC’s late-night programs.