Weekly Cable Ratings: ESPN, TBS Score in Primetime

By R. Thomas Umstead
last updated

Fox News Channel defends total-day crown

New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Guardians in Game 4 of 2022 ALDS
Harrison Bader of the New York Yankees hits a home run in Game 4 of the American League Division Series, which helped power TBS to No. 2 in primetime. (Image credit: Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Live sports programming continued to propel cable network ratings in primetime as ESPN and TBS topped last week's ratings chart.

ESPN — bolstered by its Monday Night Football and weekend college football telecasts — won its second-straight primetime weekly title, averaging 3 million viewers during the week of October 10-16, according to Nielsen. Coverage of Major League Baseball’s postseason American League Division Series helped TBS finish second in primetime with 2.4 million viewers, while the two National League Division Series led FS1 to a fourth-place finish with 1.3 million viewers.

Cable news networks Fox News Channel (2.1 million viewers) and MSNBC (1.3 million) took third and fifth place, respectively.

HGTV finished sixth with 808,000 viewers, followed by Hallmark Channel (780,000 viewers), TLC (673,000), TNT (656,000) and CNN (649,000).

Fox News (1.4 million viewers) held off a strong charge from ESPN (896,000) and TBS (848,000) to top the total day chart for the 41st consecutive week. MSNBC (843,000) and FS1 (562,000) rounded out the top five most-watched networks in the category for the week, according to Nielsen. ■ 

R. Thomas Umstead
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.