Weekly Cable Ratings: Fox News Extends Primetime Win Streak

Gutfeld
'Gutfeld!' on Fox News Channel (Image credit: Fox News)

Fox News Channel continued to sizzle on the ratings front last week, extending its winning streaks on both the primetime and total-day charts.

The news network won its seventh consecutive weekly primetime race, averaging 1.7 million viewers for the week of August 7-13 and besting second-place MSNBC’s 887,000-viewer average, according to Nielsen numbers supplied by Fox News.

The start of National Football League preseason football games propelled NFL Network to a third-place finish with 858,000 viewers, followed by HGTV with 783,000 viewers and ESPN with 727,000 viewers. 

INSP finished sixth in primetime with 712,000 viewers, followed by Hallmark Channel (700,000 viewers), TLC (644,000), USA Network (631,000) and History (605,000). 

The cable news networks topped the total day charts last week, led by Fox News with an average of 1.1 million viewers for its 32nd straight win, followed by MSNBC’s 887,000 viewers and CNN’s 487,000 watchers. HGTV (432,000 viewers) and Hallmark Channel (404,000) rounded out the top five most-watched networks on a 24-hour basis, 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.