Fox News Continued To See Audience Growth In May While MSNBC And CNN Posted Double-Digit Declines Vs. 2024
The past month saw the debut of MSNBC's new nighttime lineup, with The Weeknight taking the 7 p.m. ET slot, Rachel Maddow returning to one night a week at 9 p.m. ET and Jen Psaki filling that time period Tuesday to Thursday.
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But the new shows are not reversing the trendlines vs. 2024. While MSNBC has recovered some audience since a post-election fall off, the network, like CNN, has seen double-digit drops from a year ago. The caveat is that last year was a presidential election year, when networks typically see an increase in viewership.
In primetime, Fox News averaged 2.46 million viewers, up 23%, while MSNBC posted 877,000, down 24%, and CNN averaged 426,000, down 18%. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 262,000, up 32%, compared to CNN with 76,000, down 21%, and MSNBC with 73,000, down 34%.
In total day, Fox News averaged 1.56 million viewers, up 21%, compared to MSNBC with 545,000, down 33%, and CNN with 353,000, down 24%. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 180,000, up 22%, while CNN posted 59,000, down 27%, and MSNBC averaged 49,000, down 41%.
The Rachel Maddow Show was MSNBC's top rated show, averaging 1.89 million viewers, while The Briefing with Jen Psaki averaged 950,000, according to Nielsen figures of the four weeks through May 23. The latter is down from the previous occupant of the Tuesday-Friday time slot, Alex Wagner Tonight, which averaged 1.3 million viewers of its run from 2022 to 2025. Psaki's show did improve on its lead in, All In with Chris Hayes, which averaged 912,000.
The Weeknight, featuring hosts Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez, averaged 772,000 total viewers. In its final month in February, Joy Reid's ReidOut averaged 955,000.
Fox News' The Five was the most viewed cable news show of the month, drawing an average of 3.77 million viewers, followed by Jesse Watters Primetime with 3.23 million, Gutfeld! with 2.92 million, Special Report with 2.81 million and Hannity with 2.73 million. In the 25-54 demo, The Five averaged 368,000, followed by Jesse Watters Primetime with 363,000, Gutfeld! with 328,000, Hannity with 299,000 and The Ingraham Angle with 297,000.
The figures are from Nielsen via Fox News.
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