Cable news ratings tighten with big months for CNN, MSNBC

NEW YORK — Cable television news has never been more in vogue and so competitive.

Several programs on MSNBC and CNN had their most-watched months ever in January, the Nielsen company said. CNN as a network did so, too, in a newsy month where the Capitol insurrection and President Joe Biden’s inauguration left a lot to talk about.

For the weekday prime-time schedule — the heart of the networks — MSNBC averaged 3.31 million viewers, CNN had 3.12 million and Fox News Channel had 2.89 million. Fox has been the top-rated cable news network for 19 years, and this represented the first month it finished third to its rivals since 1999, Nielsen said.

Over the full day, CNN averaged 1.91 million viewers for the month (up 151% from January 2020). MSNBC had 1.66 million (up 65%) and Fox News Channel was 1.37 million (down 20%).

Fox News returned to the top in prime-time ratings last week, the first full week of the Biden administration, Nielsen said. The major trends are continuing, however: CNN is markedly up over last year, MSNBC is up by a smaller margin and Fox is declining.

For the week, CBS was the most-watched broadcast network, averaging 4.7 million viewers in prime time. ABC had 3.6 million, NBC had 3 million, Fox had 2.6 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Telemundo had 1.12 million and Ion Television had 1.11 million.

Fox News Channel led among the cable networks, averaging 2.56 million viewers. MSNBC had 2.23 million, CNN had 1.79 million, HGTV had 1.33 million and History had 1.03 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 9.9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 8.3 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.2 million.

For the week of Jan. 25-31, the 20 most-watched programs, their networks and viewerships:

1. “NCIS,” CBS, 10.03 million.

2. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.36 million.

3. “FBI,” CBS, 8.28 million.

4. “911,” Fox, 7.22 million.

5. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7.2 million.

6. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 6.96 million.

7. “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, ABC, 6.61 million.

8. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 6.42 million.

9. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 6.23 million.

10. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 5.971 million.

11. “Bob Hearts Abishola,” CBS, 5.967 million.