FNC celebrates a quarter with the most-watched primetime across the cable dial, while MSNBC slides below CNN in the demo.
No one would say the summer of 2014 suffered any shortage of breaking news.
From the crisis in Ferguson, Mo., to the cultural impact of Robin Williams‘ and Joan Rivers‘ sudden deaths and all the way up to recent round-the-clock coverage of U.S. strikes on ISIS, cable news has been heavily occupied. The last three months have been so big, Fox News Channel just clocked its first quarter with the most-watched primetime across all of cable in more than a decade — even besting USA and ESPN.
The average 1.79 million viewers between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., Monday through Friday, gave FNC its first quarter atop the dial since the Iraq War broke out in 2003. Expanding that block by an hour, which includes Greta Van Susteren at 7 p.m., FNC was the most watched in primetime for the first time ever. And in the targeted demographic of adults 25-54, FNC was up 12 percent from the same period a year ago, with an average 313,000 viewers.
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Watching The Five now, but the best I can say is, it’s the best of a poor lot.
As long as Geraldo, Shep and Beckle are there, I won’t be.
This is good as long as the viewer movement is away from CNN/MSNBC to Foxnews. That would tend to mean that people are realizing that Foxnews is being perceived by center and center-left as honest and balanced reporting while the others are mostly blatant propaganda for the progressives. These are the people you want to reach and convince to open their minds. I just wish Fox would produce a thirty minute evening news program for their networks 6:30 slot. It would compete with the other three and help bring even more people over.
While these low ratings for CNN, HLN and MSNBC are good news it doesn’t mean changes are in the air for them. They really just are the propaganda arm for their owners who are ready to take the loss (hell, it’s only shareholders money). The good thing is that Maddow, Matthews, Blitzer and all the rest will take a kick in the wallet come contract time.
Txn4Evr, think of them as comic relief, not a cure-all for their leftism but it ‘almost’ makes them tolerable……………………..
scr – they sorta do that via their local affiliates, how to better attract the middle types is still a thing of mystery, having the groups you mention continuing with their blatant left leanings certainly doesn’t hurt……….
BTW, I try to watch the former big 3 network news, mainly because they do local weather and sports, and it gives me a chance to see how they twist things……….
@GomeznSA; Hey Gomez, I haven’t watched the big three network news in years and they never covered local weather or sports before. I was talking about the “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams”, “ABC Nightly News with Diane Sawyer” and “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley”. Imagine a “Fox Nightly News with Chris Wallace”. It may start off slow but hell, after a year it could grab half or more of the total audience and start to force real journalism back into the other three.