MSNBC And CNN Shed Viewers in 2022, While Fox News Found New Ways to Dominate – Even With Democrats

As 2022 comes to an end, Fox News’s dominance over the American cable news landscape remains total, with the network finding new ways to beat the competition.

In terms of total day viewership, Fox News was the only one of the top three networks to grow year over year in both the key 25-54 age demographic and in terms of total viewers. Fox scored a total day average of 1.49 million total viewers during 2022 – a 12% increase from the previous year. In the demo, Fox was up 3% with a total day average of 231,000 viewers.

MSNBC ended the year in second place with 733,000 average total day viewers, a decrease of 27% from the year before. In the demo, MSNBC landed in a solid third place with only 83,000 average day demo viewers – a 35% decrease.

CNN’s total day average came in at 568,000 total viewers – a 27% drop from 2021. In the demo, CNN landed in second place with 123,000 viewers, a decrease of 35% from the year before. CNN saw its worst total day demo for the year since tracking began in 1992, dipping below the previous low set in 2014.

CNN has made several major programming changes in 2022, as new CEO Chris Licht continues to shake-up the network and work to enact his vision of recommitting to the journalism at the heart of cable news. CNN.com was a bright spot for the company this year, raking in 129 million average monthly visitors — the most in all of news. CNN was followed by the New York Times, NBCNews.com, Yahoo News, and CBSNews.com as the most-read digital news sources.

Fox News’s year-over-year growth not only stood alone atop cable news, but the network achieved some new feats as well, marking its seventh year in a row leading the industry. Fox News’s daytime ratings juggernaut, The Five, closed out the year at number one – making the panel show the first non-primetime program to land at number one for a full year.

Tucker Carlson came in solid second place in total viewers and won the demo, having raked in massive numbers among younger viewers throughout the year. Veteran host Sean Hannity, who has the longest run on cable news, landed third in the demo overall, but Jesse Watters rounded out the top three in total viewers.

Watters’s new show, Jesse Watters Prime Time, was the fastest-growing program in 2022 and ended the year as the highest-rated 7 p.m. hour in cable news history. Bret Baier’s news-focused program, Special Report, landed in fifth place in total viewers — behind Watters and Hannity.

Laura Ingraham secured a top 5 finish in the demo for the year, further cementing her status as the most-watched woman in the industry. Greg Gutfeld’s eponymous late-night political satire show continued to grow its audience throughout the year and finished 2022 as the second most watched late-night program, following CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert – which Gutfeld! has managed to eclipse in recent months.

In total, Fox News had 13 of the top 15 shows on cable news, with MSNBC’s 9 p.m. hour, shared by Rachel Maddow and Alex Wagner, landing in 10th place — Maddow continues to attract a big audience with her show on Mondays. Lawrence O’Donnell came in 15th for the year as Fox & Friends, Chris Hayes, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, and Joy Reid rounded out the top 20 shows – respectively. MSNBC dominated the House Jan. 6 hearings throughout the year, topping the ratings during each one. The network also pulled off a surprise win over CNN on election night.

Anderson Cooper ended the year as the top-rated CNN host in total viewers, with the 23rd most-watched show on cable news, followed by Jake Tapper at number 25.

CNN saw strong ratings during the weekends with anchor Jim Acosta at times even topping the network’s prime time stars and notching post-election wins over both Fox News and MSNBC programming. Chris Wallace also had some strong showings with his weekend interview program: Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace. CNN saw several ratings spikes throughout the year as breaking news events like the war in Ukraine, the House Jan. 6 Hearings, and the midterm elections brought viewers back.

MSNBC, meanwhile, saw historic lows in its weekend ratings, with the bottom falling out in the demo as the network recorded its lowest-rated weekend demo for the year since its launch in 1999. In November, MSNBC abruptly fired weekend host Tiffany Cross after she took an off-color jab at Florida and had been warned previously her commentary didn’t adhere to network standards. 2023 will undoubtedly see further shake-ups in MSNBC’s weekend line-up and moves to try and attract more demo viewers overall.

Notably, according to data from Nielsen/MRI Fusion date through October, Fox News not only attracted the largest younger audience but also the most politically diverse in cable news as more Democrats, Republicans, and Independents watched Fox than CNN or MSNBC, both in the demo and in terms of total viewers.

While this is largely attributed to the sheer volume of Fox’s audience, having scored 53% of all cable news viewers for the year, the amount of Democrats and Independents watching Fox News is noteworthy and clearly a point of pride at the network.

“From America’s choice on election night to the home of late night’s smash hit show, 2022 was a testament to our unmatched skill in delivering the most innovative news and opinion programming to our audience which continues to rank as the most politically diverse in cable news,” said Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott on the 2022 ratings — referencing the fact that on election night the network dominated all of television news, including broadcast.

As for the three cable news networks overall, here are the total day averages in total viewers and the 25-54 demo for 2022

Total viewers:

CNN: 568,000

Fox News: 1.49 million

MSNBC: 733,000

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 123,000

Fox News: 231,000

MSNBC: 83,000

Here are the prime time averages — encompassing shows which air from 8-11 p.m. — in total viewers and the 25-54 demo for 2022.

Total viewers:

CNN: 730,000

Fox News: 2.33 million

MSNBC: 1.21 million

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 174,000

Fox News: 346,000

MSNBC: 133,000

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