Fox News Crushes CNN, MSNBC In November Ratings: FNC Owns 14 Out Of Top 15 Shows In Cable News

Ben JohnsonDecember 3, 2021

Fox News continued its domination of cable news in the month of November, claiming 14 out of the top 15 cable news shows in total viewership. FNC’s November broadcasting schedule landed 71 of the top 100 telecasts in all of cable, not merely news, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Last month, more viewers chose to watch Fox News Channel than MSNBC and CNN combined — for the fourth month in a row. MSNBC scored one show in the top 10; CNN’s highest-rated show ranked 24th.

“Tucker Carlson Tonight” reclaimed its mantle as the most-watched show in cable news, which it lost last month to “The Five.” Carlson’s interview with Kyle Rittenhouse drew a whopping 5.05 million viewers when it aired on November 22. All in all, Tucker Carlson’s 8 p.m. show averaged 3.67 million viewers last month.

The network’s ratings dominance proved even greater among young viewers. Fox News owned 15 of the top 16 spots among the highly sought-after 25- to 54-year-old demographic. Rachel Maddow came in at fifteenth place. CNN’s top-rated program with young adults, “Erin Burnett Outfront,” attracted 181,000 viewers — or 28% of Tucker Carlson’s 651,000 young adult viewership.

Notably, Greg Gutfeld’s 11 p.m. comedy show “Gutfeld!” remains the number one show on all of basic cable in its time slot, also beating ABC and NBC’s late-night “comedy” shows. “Additionally, all FNC weekday shows are up month over month in all categories,” Fox boasted in a press release.

MSNBC likely eyes its future warily. In August numerous sources close to its top anchor, Rachel Maddow, leaked that she was considering leaving the network and forming her own streaming content platform when her contract expired in early 2022. CNN reportedly leaped at the opportunity to poach talent its top-rated competitor, with network president Jeffrey Zucker offering Maddow $20 million to anchor a show on its new streaming platform, CNN+. In the end, MSNBC re-signed Maddow, wooing her with a $30 million annual contract (more than four times her previously reported $7 million-a-year salary). The network will wind down her weeknight show next spring in favor of “a weekly program that will air 30 times a year,” according to OutKick.

MSNBC also continues to struggle with the 25-to-54 demographic. Only three of its shows—Maddow (15), “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” (23), and “All In with Chris Hayes” (24). The network will soon have an opportunity to change up its programming schedule, as it is losing Brian Williams, the host of “The 11th Hour,” by year’s end.

CNN found its ratings woes fueled by the decline of Chris Cuomo, whose “Cuomo Prime Time” had long held the top-rated position on the network. Viewership began to dwindle as the sexual harassment scandal that brought down his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D), ensnared the host. “Anderson Cooper 360” displaced Cuomo’s 9 p.m. show as the network’s top show in November — coming in 24th with 786,000 total viewers, or 40% of Rachel Maddow’s audience, or 21% of Carlson’s. CNN has since placed Cuomo on an “indefinite” leave of absence, as documents released by New York Attorney General Letitia James show Cuomo used his position as a “journalist” to help his brother prepare his unsuccessful defense against sexual harassment charges brought by numerous women. Thus far, Anderson Cooper has extended his program by an extra hour to compensate.

The top 10 shows in the month of November 2021 according to total viewership were:

1. “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” 3,67 million viewers;

2. “The Five,” 3,51 million viewers;

3. “Hannity,” 3.23 million viewers;

4. “Special Report with Bret Baier,” 2.77 million viewers;

5. “The Ingraham Angle,” 2.66 million viewers;

6. “Fox News Primetime,” 2,4 million viewers;

7. “Outnumbered,” 2,04 million viewers;

8. “Gutfeld!” 1,.98 million viewers;

9. “The Rachel Maddow Show,” 1.98 million viewers; and

10. “America’s Newsroom ,” 1.89 million viewers.

All three top cable news networks, unsurprisingly, received lower ratings last month than they did in November 2020during the hotly contested presidential election. CNN has seen its ratings plunge dramatically since President Donald Trump left office shortly before Joe Biden’s inauguration. The ongoing ratings conundrum of CNN, which will soon be merged with numerous other networks including HBO Max and DiscoveryPlus, has its incoming owners publicly floating the idea of having the Cable News Network return to reporting news. “I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with and, you know, actually have journalists,” said Liberty Media Chairman John Malone, a top shareholder under the new arrangement.

Takeaways:

No one benefited from the legacy media’s biased coverage of Kyle Rittenhouse than Tucker Carlson.Greg Gutfeld continues to prosper by focusing his comedy show on laughter, not attracting applause by screaming politically charged bromides.MSNBC’s scheduling “shake up,” replacing Ayman Mohyeldin with Hallie Jackson and moving José Díaz-Balart into Jackson’s midday slot, has yet to produce a standout personality.