Cable News Ratings: Fox News More Dominant Than Ever, CNN A Non Factor, Troubling Sign For MSNBC
Perhaps at no other point in cable history has Fox News been more dominant than it is today.
For the month of April, Fox News accounted for 13 of the top 14 highest-rated shows in the industry. MSNBC's highest-rated show, "The Rachel Maddow Show," ranked eighth. Not a single CNN program ranked among the top 25.
Here is the full list:
Highlights of the month include Jesse Watters anchoring the two highest-rated shows on cable news, Will Cain drawing primetime numbers at 4 pm, and a news program ("Special Report" with Bret Baier) cracking the top four.
Looking ahead, there's a real chance MSNBC loses its sole entry among the top 10 in May.
Rachel Maddow, the network's biggest draw, only agreed to host her program five days a week for the first 100 days of the Trump administration. Next week, she will revert to a once-a-week schedule, turning over the 9 p.m. hour to Jen Psaki from Tuesdays through Fridays.
The drop between Maddow and the rest of the channel is significant. Last year, the hour lost around 700,000 viewers on the days Maddow didn't host. While Psaki shares a similar worldview, she's not the presenter or as thought-provoking as Maddow is.
For all of Maddow's flaws – such as spreading the Russia Hoax for nearly three calendar years – no single television commentator is more important to their respective network than she is.
As for CNN, the network is no longer competitive with Fox and MSNBC. Most days, CNN ranks closer to Newsmax and NewsNation in average viewership.
Last Wednesday, CNN averaged fewer than 500,000 viewers in primetime. "The Source with Kaitlan Collins drew 464,000 viewers, followed by "NewsNight with Abby Phillip" at 459,000 and "Laura Coates Live" at just 269,000.
Shows on ESPN about sports draw more viewers than CNN does in primetime, despite the heavy news cycle. Barring CNN finally establishing its own Rachel Maddow, we don't see this downward trajectory changing.
In fact, the prediction here is that parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, will ultimately spin CNN off, away from its more valuable properties like Max and HBO.
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