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Separate from the rest of the mainstream media, which has been on a steady and noticeable decline, Fox News has been enjoying an outburst of phenomenal ratings from critics and viewers alike.
In fact it was just recently reported that:
Fox News continued to dominate cable ratings in August keeping alive an unmatched streak of winning the industry has never seen. Fox finished August 2022 as the third most-watched network in all of television beating ABC but trailing CBS and NBC.
Fox News was cable’s highest-rated network in total day and primetime with total viewers and the top-rated in total day with the 25-54 demo. Fox beat MSNBC and CNN combined in total day and primetime viewers. Combined!
Fox ranked number one in cable news in primetime viewers for the 19th month. For the month of August, Fox also had 96 of the top 100 cable news shows. Fox’s newest hit, ‘Outnumbered’ continued to outpace the competition easily winning its timeslot and routinely beating primetime shows at rival cable networks despite airing during the day.
It was further reported by Deadline that:
Fox News again topped the monthly ratings, as The Five topped in total viewers and Tucker Carlson Tonight won the adults 25-54 demographic in August.
The network saw a 4% rise in total-day viewership, while it said that its late-night show Gutfeld! saw its highest-rated month since its April 2021 launch, with 2.19 million viewers.
MSNBC, meanwhile, saw an uptick in its total day and primetime viewers for the month versus last year, while all the major cable news networks saw a fall-off in the demo.
One of the biggest news stories during the month was the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, driving plenty of Donald Trump commentary on Fox News and MSNBC.
The biggest debut of the month was Alex Wagner Tonight, taking over the 9 PM ET slot from Rachel Maddow on Tuesdays through Fridays. Wagner’s show debuted with 2 million viewers on August 16, but, with a fall-off after that, ended up averaging 1.55 million viewers. That’s slightly below the 1.56 million for MSNBC Prime, the interim show that filled the slot after Maddow went to one night a week earlier this year.
In the 25-54 demo, Alex Wagner Tonight averaged 157,000 vs. 167,000 for MSNBC Prime. Late August traditionally sees somewhat of a viewership dip overall, given pre-Labor Day vacation breathers, so the fall will be a bit of a test, as there’s expectation of an overall viewership boost with interest in the midterm elections. Hannity topped the time slot with an average of 2.92 million viewers and 397,000 in the demo. CNN Tonight averaged 726,000 and 168,000 in the demo.
The Monday edition of The Rachel Maddow Show, meanwhile, was the only non-Fox News show to break the top five in total viewers, averaging 2.73 million. It also was the highest-rated non-Fox News show in the 25-54 demo, averaging 292,000.
Fox News has been promoting the audience for Gutfeld!, and comparing its 2.19 million average viewers in August to that of Late Show with Stephen Colbert, with an average of 2.16 million. There is a caveat: Gutfeld!, which starts at 11 p.m. ET, a half hour earlier than broadcast network late-night shows, actually airs at 8 p.m. in the Pacific time zone. Nevertheless, from a ratings standpoint, the move of Gutfeld! into the 11 p.m. ET slot has paid off for the network, and the show is now in the top five cable news shows among younger viewers.
So, the victories just seem to keep coming for Fox News. We actually just reported earlier today that McEnany’s cohort at Fox, Greg Gutfeld has made television history recently. History was indeed made when he became the first late-night cable program to finish the month as the most-watched late-night show in all of broadcast and cable. This included outpointing CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” for August. That last sentence is worth digging into because it was the first time that Stephen Colbert and his show were thrown off the top spot in the ratings in over five years!
We also reported that another Fox News host, Jesse Watters has been the happy recipient of more good news concerning his show. Here, we reported just last week that two of Watter’s shows have landed in the top 5 most watched television shows. For context, we further reported that CNN could only muster one show in the top 25 and only 4 in the top 50. MSNBC didn’t have any shows in the top 50, and the network’s replacement for Rachel Maddow finished below even Chris Hayes.
Follow The Raging Patriot for more on this story as it develops!
