Below is a table of the prime time cable news ratings for FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC from Monday, October 19 through Thursday, October 22. Keep in mind that the most important demographic is A25-54. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment!
|
|
Network |
Day |
A25-54 |
A18-49 |
A18-34 |
Total viewers |
|
Presidential Debate (9:03pm) |
FOX News |
Thursday |
3.63 |
2.61 |
1.63 |
15.405 |
|
Presidential Debate Analysis (10:37pm) |
FOX news |
Thursday |
2.89 |
2.04 |
1.24 |
12.143 |
|
Final Presidential Debate (9:04pm) |
CNN |
Thursday |
2.50 |
1.94 |
1.30 |
7.508 |
|
Presidential Debate Coverage (8:50pm) |
FOX News |
Thursday |
2.32 |
1.65 |
1.02 |
11.289 |
|
Hannity (11pm) |
FOX News |
Thursday |
1.58 |
1.07 |
0.66 |
7.533 |
|
Debate Night in America (10:37pm) |
CNN |
Thursday |
1.50 |
1.07 |
0.60 |
5.275 |
|
Tucker Carlson Tonight |
FOX News |
Thursday |
1.44 |
0.97 |
0.51 |
8.152 |
|
Debate |
MSNBC |
Thursday |
1.31 |
0.90 |
0.53 |
6.929 |
|
MSNBC Debate Analysis (10:37pm) |
MSNBC |
Thursday |
1.21 |
0.81 |
0.44 |
6.594 |
|
Debate Night in America (8pm) |
CNN |
Thursday |
1.02 |
0.69 |
0.39 |
3.613 |
|
The Ingraham Angle (12am) |
FOX News |
Thursday |
0.87 |
0.61 |
0.39 |
4.511 |
|
Tucker Carlson Tonight |
FOX News |
Monday |
0.82 |
0.51 |
0.25 |
5.248 |
|
The Story with Martha MacCallum |
FOX News |
Thursday |
0.80 |
0.50 |
0.27 |
4.652 |
|
Tucker Carlson Tonight |
FOX News |
Tuesday |
0.80 |
0.47 |
0.27 |
5.217 |
|
Tucker Carlson Tonight |
FOX News |
Wednesday |
0.79 |
0.47 |
0.26 |
5.330 |
|
Hannity |
FOX News |
Tuesday |
0.77 |
0.44 |
0.21 |
4.977 |
|
Hannity |
FOX News |
Wednesday |
0.74 |
0.44 |
0.19 |
5.076 |
|
The Ingraham Angle |
FOX News |
Wednesday |
0.70 |
0.42 |
0.16 |
4.587 |
|
Hannity |
FOX News |
Monday |
0.69 |
0.43 |
0.18 |
4.920 |
|
MSNBC Debate Preview |
MSNBC |
Thursday |
0.63 |
0.39 |
0.20 |
4.009 |
|
Erin Burnett OutFront |
CNN |
Thursday |
0.61 |
0.43 |
0.26 |
2.629 |
|
Rachel Maddow Show |
MSNBC |
Wednesday |
0.59 |
0.35 |
0.17 |
3.995 |
|
The Ingraham Angle |
FOX News |
Tuesday |
0.59 |
0.34 |
0.19 |
3.960 |
|
The Ingraham Angle |
FOX News |
Monday |
0.59 |
0.33 |
0.13 |
4.364 |
|
Anderson Cooper 360 |
CNN |
Tuesday |
0.57 |
0.36 |
0.23 |
2.360 |
|
Cuomo Prime Time (9pm) |
CNN |
Wednesday |
0.57 |
0.35 |
0.15 |
2.670 |
|
The Story with Martha MacCallum |
FOX News |
Tuesday |
0.57 |
0.33 |
0.15 |
3.419 |
|
Cuomo Prime Time (9pm) |
CNN |
Tuesday |
0.56 |
0.36 |
0.18 |
2.372 |
|
Anderson Cooper 360 |
CNN |
Wednesday |
0.55 |
0.35 |
0.14 |
2.428 |
|
CNN Tonight (10pm) |
CNN |
Wednesday |
0.55 |
0.34 |
0.13 |
2.250 |
|
Erin Burnett OutFront |
CNN |
Tuesday |
0.50 |
0.35 |
0.22 |
2.074 |
|
Rachel Maddow Show |
MSNBC |
Tuesday |
0.50 |
0.32 |
0.15 |
3.561 |
|
CNN Tonight (10pm) |
CNN |
Tuesday |
0.49 |
0.31 |
0.12 |
1.956 |
|
Rachel Maddow Show |
MSNBC |
Monday |
0.48 |
0.29 |
0.15 |
3.383 |
|
The Story with Martha MacCallum |
FOX News |
Wednesday |
0.47 |
0.31 |
0.14 |
3.056 |
|
Erin Burnett OutFront |
CNN |
Wednesday |
0.47 |
0.30 |
0.12 |
2.271 |
|
The Story with Martha MacCallum |
FOX News |
Monday |
0.44 |
0.28 |
0.14 |
2.866 |
|
Anderson Cooper 360 |
CNN |
Monday |
0.44 |
0.26 |
0.17 |
2.076 |
|
All In with Chris Hayes |
MSNBC |
Wednesday |
0.44 |
0.26 |
0.15 |
2.832 |
|
Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell |
MSNBC |
Wednesday |
0.44 |
0.26 |
0.13 |
3.105 |
|
Cuomo Prime Time |
CNN |
Monday |
0.42 |
0.26 |
0.13 |
2.015 |
|
Erin Burnett OutFront |
CNN |
Monday |
0.39 |
0.24 |
0.18 |
1.662 |
|
Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell |
MSNBC |
Tuesday |
0.39 |
0.22 |
0.09 |
2.926 |
|
CNN Tonight (10pm) |
CNN |
Monday |
0.38 |
0.26 |
0.11 |
1.741 |
|
The ReidOut |
MSNBC |
Wednesday |
0.37 |
0.21 |
0.14 |
2.686 |
|
Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell |
MSNBC |
Monday |
0.36 |
0.21 |
0.07 |
2.704 |
|
The ReidOut |
MSNBC |
Thursday |
0.35 |
0.21 |
0.12 |
2.462 |
|
All In with Chris Hayes |
MSNBC |
Tuesday |
0.29 |
0.18 |
0.06 |
2.212 |
|
The ReidOut |
MSNBC |
Tuesday |
0.27 |
0.18 |
0.10 |
2.259 |
|
All In with Chris Hayes |
MSNBC |
Monday |
— |
0.14 |
— |
2.061 |
|
The ReidOut |
MSNBC |
Monday |
— |
0.13 |
— |
2.043 |
The main attraction this week was Thursday’s second and final Presidential debate. FOX News crushed its fellow cable news channels with its debate coverage. While CNN and MSNBC also posted high ratings, they were simply no match for the conservative network that aired the exact same debate. The gravitation toward President Trump’s favorite network for the debate is striking, especially while keeping in mind that Biden’s Town Hall last week performed better than Trump’s. In fact, FOX News had more total viewers for the debate than CNN and MSNBC had combined. Biden supporters may be able to take solace that Trump’s two least favorite networks combined to do better than FOX News is all key demos, but there’s no escaping that total viewers loss.
FOX News Viewers |
CNN Viewers |
MSNBC Viewers |
|
|
October 12 - October 15 |
4.64 |
1.97 |
2.67 |
|
October 19 - October 21 |
4.42 |
2.16 |
2.81 |
Not even counting Thursday, FOX News was clearly the dominant network yet again this week. CNN and MSNBC both saw small gains, and FOX News saw small losses, but FOX News is still by far the network of choice for cable news viewers. When it comes to which shows do best for each network, the trend was practically the same as most other weeks: Tucker Carlson Tonight and Hannity top FOX News with The Ingraham Angle and The Story lagging behind; Rachel Maddow Show soars over the fellow MSNBC shows; and all of CNN’s shows take their turns with solid and not-so-solid ratings.
|
|
National Average |
Battleground States |
Betting Odds |
|
October 15 |
Biden +9.4 |
Biden +4.8 |
Biden +29.8 |
|
October 22 |
Biden +7.9 |
Biden +4.1 |
Biden +30.2 |
While Biden has an incredibly healthy lead in the national average, his lead was down to 4.1 points at the end of the day on Thursday, October 23, and fell to a 3.8 percentage point lead the next day. More importantly, when averaging the poll results for top battleground states (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona), Biden is virtually tied with where Hillary Clinton was four years ago.
Still, there are a lot of unknowns. With roughly 50 million votes already cast (reportedly largely for Biden), it is unclear if the sample of those polled is shifting. Additionally, Hillary Clinton’s elevated FBI scandal did not rise until October 28, 2016, and there were a lot more reportedly undecided voters at this point last election. Last time, they broke largely for Trump, making it unclear how much a similar-sized scandal for Biden could affect his vote totals.
Regardless, a tightening race is not good for Biden’s campaign. The betting odds market is still largely predicting a Biden win, but let’s not count out a Trump victory, or at least a very close race in the electoral college.