Fox News Channel reaped the benefits of this weekend’s vote and confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, earnings the cable network’s most-watched Saturday primetime since the Iraq War in 2003. In terms of total-day viewers, it was Fox’s best Saturday since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
For the vote and Kavanaugh’s ultimate confirmation, which spanned 3-5 p.m. ET, Fox News averaged 4.3 million total viewers, with 819,000 of those coming from the key 25-54 demographic. That overall haul is more than double the combined tune-in for competitors CNN and MSNBC, and it represents roughly 460 percent gains over Fox’s Saturday averages for the two hours.
While Fox also had a big lead in the advertiser-coveted demo, the margin wasn’t quite twice its combined competition.
Primetime provided an even larger chasm in Fox’s favor. Its 3.326 million viewers crushed CNN’s 422,000 and MSNBC’s 532,000. Fox, which overall enjoyed its third-best Saturday primetime ever, more than doubled the combined competition’s demo viewers from 8-11 p.m.
In terms of Nielsen’s total-day metric, Fox News averaged 2.497 million total viewers, with 483,000 from the demo. CNN had 636,000 total viewers, with 186,000 from the demo. MSNBC got 616,000 total viewers, with 120,000 demo viewers.
Below are Saturday’s Nielsen ratings for all three cable news channels and all three day parts.
Vote & Confirmation (3-5PM/ET):
Fox News: 4,337,000 total viewers; 819,000 25-54 demo
CNN: 1,158,000 total viewers; 326,000 25-54 demo
MSNBC: 914,000 total viewers; 175,000 25-54 demo
Total Day:
Fox News: 2,497,000 total viewers; 483,000 25-54 demo
CNN: 636,000 total viewers; 186,000 25-54 demo
MSNBC: 616,000 total viewers; 120,000 25-54 demo
Primetime:
Fox News: 3,326,000 total viewers; 583,000 25-54 demo
CNN: 422,000 total viewers; 136,000 25-54 demo
MSNBC: 532,000 total viewers; 82,000 25-54 demo