Fox News leads ratings after falling behind CNN post-election

After finding itself in the unusual position of trailing CNN in the frenzied weeks after the 2020 presidential election, Fox News Channel is back in its longtime spot atop the cable-news heap.

For the first half of 2021, Fox ranked first across the day (averaging 1.3 million viewers) and in primetime (2.3 million). MSNBC finished second in both categories (1.1 million and 1.9 million, respectively), and CNN ranked third (1 million and 1.4 million in primetime), according to Nielsen figures for the year to date through June 27.

After retaking the lead from CNN last winter, Fox’s margin over its two cable-news competitors grew larger as the months passed since the election turmoil. From April to June, Fox averaged 1.2 million viewers per day, far ahead of MSNBC (847,000) and CNN (654,000). In primetime, it was even further ahead (2.2 million viewers to MSNBC’s 1.5 million and CNN’s 914,000).

Temporary ratings reversal:CNN moves to No. 1, Fox drops in post-election ratings shake-up: Will it last?

Two Fox primetime programs, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (2.9 million) and “Hannity” (2.7 million) were the second quarter’s most-watched cable shows, followed by Fox’s “The Five” (2.6 million), MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” (2.5 million) and Fox’s “The Ingraham Angle” (2.1 million).

All three cable-news networks were down at least 30% from the same period last year: Fox News declined 39%, CNN was down 45% and MSNBC dropped 30%. It’s unclear how much of that drop is the result of continuing gradual audience declines and how much stems from the absence of two huge 2020 stories, the COVID-19 pandemic and the presidential race. No comparable news stories have arisen in recent months.

CNN and MSNBC surged and Fox dipped in the news frenzy immediately after the 2020 election when President Trump began falsely claiming the election was stolen from him, which led some of his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

At the time, Fox also experienced erosion in its conservative audience base from two much smaller, pro-Trump networks, Newsmax and One America News Network (OAN), although Newsmax viewership fell by roughly half, to 115,000 viewers by spring. Some news reports say Fox, which has been criticized at times by Trump, moved further right in its news and opinion programming to expunge the threat from the smaller competitors, which had drawn praise from the former president. Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch has characterized the network, including its opinion hosts, as “center-right.”

In recent months, Fox bolstered its strongest ratings source – the primetime opinion shows of Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham – with surrounding opinion programming, “Fox News Primetime,” with a series of rotating (and auditioning) hosts weekdays at 7 EDT/4 PDT, and “Gutfeld!,” Greg Gutfeld’s conservative, irreverent talk show at 11 EDT/8 PDT.