Through November, Fox News was near its 2009 annual primetime ratings peak (for the adults 25-54 demo targeted by cable news advertisers), while MSNBC held at its low ratings point of the year and CNN was just off its low ratings point.
For anyone wondering, CNN's June/July ratings spike was courtesy of the Michael Jackson death frenzy.
For complete information on all cable news ratings check our daily cable news ratings posts.
Anybody else wanting to produce trend charts of any of our other data, drop me an email.
Nielsen Cable Network Coverage Estimates (as of September, 2009)
CNN/HLN: 99.10 million HHs
CNBC: 96.78 million HHs
FNC: 96.26 million HHs
MSNBC: 92.64 million HHs
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Man, I bet CNN wishes another celebrity would die. Apparently, that’s the only thing that can get their ratings up.
Not surprised by this at all, I used to watch CNN all the time and now the only shows I can watch are Zakaria and Amanpour on the weekend. I don’t like anyone they have on from 4 p.m. onwards during the week, King used to be good but he needs to retire. The departure of Dobbs is hammering them at the 7 p.m. slot also.
CNN and MSNBC need to learn how to manipulate their base audiences to watch when there’s no big news story.
Bill, any idea why the recent slight uptick for CNN?
Thanks for the analysis. Goes to show that when the press focuses on questioning our government people watch. When they focus on being lapdogs and cheerleaders for an administration, people stop listening.
This just in: CNN’s ratings are at record lows! In other news, Jay Leno is still on the air!
I’ve said it before and will say it again. If CNN would STOP ignoring important stories because they are ideologically opposed to it then their ratings would climb. 12 days and counting on climate gate and its still largely ignored by the msm. Simply pathetic. And MSNBC has simply been reduced to a liberal think tank and only get extremely partisan democrats. Until the networks change, their best hope would be to get half of Fox’s ratings.
It would be really interesting to see charts like this going back for many years, it may paint a different picture. I would be willing to make charts if I had the data (I like making charts).
philvich, sadly, we don’t have monthly data like this going back before mid-2008.
hahahahahahahahahahaha go fox
Man, we really suck. We can’t believe everyone is catching on to how lame we really are and tuning out by the thousands. Don’t worry though, we will continue to bash everyone at Fox and shamelessly support everything progressive, no matter how destructive to the country it is.
WE KNOW BEST, ACCEPT IT!!!
J.R.Herbaugh, MSNBC and CNN have no base audience to reel in. Only 20 percent of Americans even claim to be liberal. And most of those speak Spanish or have no interest in watching news. They like cartoons on Nikelodeon.
12 days and counting on climate gate and its still largely ignored by the msm.
JC, CNN did report their version of the “Climategate” story. It was reported on 11/25, black Friday when no one was watching. The problem was that it was so poorly done that I was laughing. I thought to myself gee, I was aware of the information on 11/18 and by 11/19 I had read most of the damaging emails. By 11/20 I got to the code files, something CNN didn’t cover or determined was too cerebral for its viewers, and then shock overtook my senses.
Even Andy Revkin the environmental blogger at the NYT, who was actually involved in the climategate scandal, did a more honest job of reporting on the issue calling for an investigation into the scientific misconduct. It appeared that CNN doesn’t have the news sense or competency to report on the biggest scientific scandal in the last 50 years. IMO it would be like not reporting on the tobacco memo scandal because internal memos were leaked illegally. I don’t know what CNN was thinking.
Windy, they were thinking about their ideology.
I know how to get MSNBC and CNN numbers up. I hear that there are some soon-to-be-out-of-work university professors who know how to analyze data.
Fox rules
I do not know how anyone can stand watching the MSM.
all they do is lie lie lie
Americans are not stupid.
BHO = epic fail
I can’t believe we have three more years of this fraud
FOX’s high ratings are the result of giving people what they want.
IT’S THE NEWS, STUPID! Until the MSM stops all the BS this is what CNN & MSNBC get. Low ratings.
Some MSNBC and CNN retreads have become very popular at Fox. Geraldo, Beckel, Beck, Garrett, to name a few. CNN appears to be “smug,” MSNBC seems “over the top.” MSNBC’s program director has to go! Evidently they can’t see how much damage their Prime Time lineup is for their ratings. GE and now Comcast, if they’re smart they’ll overhaul their PT programing and send people like Matthews, Maddow, and Olbermann packing.
I WAS FOLLOWING A CHAT A FEW WEEKS AGO BUT RAN INTO SYSTEM ISSUES AND COULD NOT CHIME IN. IF “DEMOGRAPHICALLY” IS STILL CHECKING IN HERE, LET ME TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF AN EVER SHINKING DEMOGRAFIC, IVY LEAGUE EDUCATED CONSERVATIVES. THE PROBLEM WITH YOU AND THOSE OF YOUR ILK IS THAT YOU ALLOW YOUR LIBERAL IDEALISMS TO CLOUD YOUR JUDGMENT TO THE POINT WHERE YOU IGNORE FACTS. HERE ARE A FEW:
GITMO – STILL OPEN
STIMULUS – INEFFECTIVE
CARD CHECK – DEAD IN THE WATER
CAP AND TRADE – WILL NEVER SEE THE SENATE FLOOR
HEALTH CARE – DYING A SLOW DEATH
WAR STRATEGY – SAME AS BUSH
2010 MID TERM – PENDING DEM BLOODBATH
OBAMA APPV RATING – 46%
GAME SET MATCH!
Fox is winning no matter how you slice it, but its ratings are inflated by the fact that it has no real competition for conservative viewers (other than perhaps CNBC during trading hours). If you add in all the news oriented programs/channels that appeal more to moderates and liberals (including the major networks, the Daily Show, etc), you get more of a sense of parity (with conservatives still in the lead to be sure). This should be expected given the distribution of political ideology in this country. MSNBC made the mistake of thinking it could mimic Fox from the left, without realizing that moving away from the center there are many more “hard core” conservatives than “hard core” liberals.