Cable News Networks See August Ratings Bump From 2024 Campaign, But Viewership Is Still Well Below Last Presidential Cycle

Cable news networks continued to see a campaign 2024 ratings bounce in August, which saw the Democratic National Convention and a tightened presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Fox News topped primetime, averaging 2.27 million viewers, up 12% from the same period in 2023. MSNBC was up 18% to 1.83 million, and CNN grew by 49% to 1.08 million. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 288,000, up 15%, compared to 246,000 for MSNBC, up 46%, and 240,000 for CNN, up 63%.

In total day, Fox News averaged 1.43 million, up 22%, followed by MSNBC with 1.02 million, up 8% and CNN with 615,000, up 13%. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 190,000, up 32%, followed by CNN with 123,000, up 17%, and 121,000 for MSNBC, up 12%.

Fox News’ The Five was the top regularly scheduled program in cable news, averaging 3.29 million viewers, followed by Jesse Watters Primetime with 2.97 million, Hannity with 2.61 million, Gutfeld! with 2.55 million and The Ingraham Angle with 2.44 million.

In adults 25-54, Gutfeld! topped with an average of 365,000 viewers, followed by Jesse Watters Primetime with 360,000, Hannity with 350,000, The Five with 339,000 and The Ingraham Angle with 281,000.

As much as the networks have been looking for a viewership spike from this year’s election, the latest figures are still off from the 2020 cycle, which was a bit of a boom year for linear TV in general. In August 2020, Fox News averaged 3.64 million viewers in primetime, compared to 2.19 million for MSNBC and 1.69 million for CNN.

The figures are from Nielsen via Fox News and CNN.

Networks touted their numbers during convention coverage. MSNBC topped networks for coverage of the Democratic National Convention, averaging 5.2 million viewers in primetime. Last month, Fox News was way ahead of rivals as it topped coverage of the Republican National Convention. CNN said it topped the 25-54 demo during the convention’s later time frame, when all broadcast and cable networks were carrying marquee speakers, with an average of 933,000 viewers. MSNBC had the edge in the primetime 25-54 demo, with 888,000, per the network.