Fox News Remains Atop Weekly Cable Ratings Charts

Fox News continued its domination of the cable weekly ratings charts, winning both the primetime and total day races for the week of Aug. 13-19, according to Nielsen.

Fox news averaged 2.2 million viewers in primetime last week, easily besting MSNBC’s 1.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen. HGTV and USA Network finished third with 1.3 million viewers, followed by ESPN’s 1.2 million watchers.

History (1.1 million viewers), Discovery Channel and CNN (1 million viewers each), Investigation Discovery (987,000) and A&E network (974,000) rounded out the top 10 most watched networks in primetime.

Fox News 1.3 million viewers on a total day basis was the most for any cable network for the 32 consecutive week. MSNBC, Nickelodeon, HGTV and Investigation Discovery followed closely behind, according to Nielsen. 

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.