Weekly Cable Ratings: Fox News Rolls into August In First Place on Primetime, Total Day Charts

Fox News
(Image credit: Fox News)

three Fox News extended its hot summer ratings performance into August with a sweep of both the primetime and total day charts. 

Fox News averaged 1.8 million viewers in primetime during the week of July 31 to August 6 to top all cable networks for the sixth straight week, according to Nielsen figures supplied by Fox News. MSNBC finished second with 1.5 million viewers, followed by HGTV’s 768,000 viewers and Hallmark Channel’s 724,000 watchers.

INSP was the fifth most-watched network for the week with 719,000 viewers, followed by CNN (710,000 viewers), History (676,000), USA Network (651,000), TLC (627,000) and Food Network (528,000).

The August 5 arraignment of Donald Trump in Washington D.C. federal court helped three cable news networks top the total day charts last week. Fox News led all networks with 1.1 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with 966,000 viewers and CNN with 547,000 watchers. HGTV (427,000 viewers) and Hallmark Channel (426,000) 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.