Fox News continued to dominate the cable television landscape, finishing as the most-watched network in both total and primetime viewers for the week of Jan 16-22, including topping its closest cable competitor in prime time by over 2 million viewers.
During prime time, Rupert Murdoch’s cable news juggernaut averaged 3.9 million viewers to beat No. 2 CNN, which averaged 1.7 million viewers. Meanwhile, HGTV, USA and Discovery join the cable news networks among the top five in the evenings.
For total day, Fox News averaged 2.5 million viewers, while Nickelodeon finished second with an average of 1.3 million. CNN, HGTV and Investigation Discovery rounded out the top five most-watched networks among all of basic cable. Despite the inauguration, MSNBC failed to crack the top five in either category, finishing No. 8 in total viewers and No. 6 in prime time.
During Friday’s inauguration coverage from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET, Fox News averaged 8.76 million viewers to beat CNN, MSNBC, HLN, FBN and CNBC combined. Fox News also beat broadcast election coverage, with NBC’s 5.79 million viewers finishing second.
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