Fox continues dominance against MSNBC, CNN

The first quarter of 2025 saw right-leaning FNC growing its ratings by an impressive 46% while CNN and MSNBC continued to wallow in the loss column.

FNC averaged around 3 million viewers during its primetime hours, according to Nielsen. In the adults 25-54 demo, it was up 63% over the same quarter of 2024, coming in at around 380,000 viewers.

MSNBC came in second, with around 1 million primetime viewers, which was down 18% over the first quarter of 2024. Primetime hours on CNN saw around 560,000 viewers, which was down 6%

When looking at total day, FNC averaged 1.9 million viewers, which beat its primetime growth by two percentage points. 

MSNBC was down 27% to approximately 590,000 while CNN had just under 428,000 viewers, which is down 8%.

MSNBC, in particular, saw a large ratings drop-off after the 2024 election. It had made gains starting in late January 2025, but still has a long way to go to continue the positive trend and grow its audience — at a time when the category is not only dominated by FNC, but linear TV audiences are shrinking in general.

MSNBC is also in the middle of implementing some significant programming changes. In February 2025, it canceled its 7 p.m. show “The ReidOut” and announced plans to move “The Weekend” panel to that hour starting later in 2025. It also axed “Alex Wagner Tonight” that had been airing Tuesday through Friday in the 9 p.m. slot “The Rachel Maddow Show” occupies Mondays. Rachel Maddow is hosting five nights per week through the 100th day of Donald Trump’s second administration after which Jen Psaki will take over those four days. Meanwhile, weekend programming is also getting an overhaul with new hosts for “The Weekend” and launch of a primetime version of the show. Several other shows have also been canceled or shuffled around.

FNC also managed to fill all top five program spots in the cable news category, with “Jesse Watters Primetime” coming in at 4.1 million, “Hannity” at 3.5 million, “Special Report with Brett Baier” with 3.5 million and “The Ingraham Angle” just behind that at 3.4 million. Meanwhile, “The Five,” which airs at 5 p.m., rounded out the top 5 with 4.6 million. 

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Sister network Fox Business also performed well in the first three months of 2025 — to the point it beat CNBC in total day, business day and market hours.

During the business day category consisting of shows airing between 9:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Fox Business came in at just over 220,000 average viewers. During trading market hours, FBN got 210,000 viewers, which is just a small bump compared to CNBC’s 204,000. 

CNBC did manage to significantly outperform FBN in the 24-54 demo, however, scoring 11,000 viewers compared to CNBC’s 53,000.

“Kudlow” on Fox Business continued its streak as top business show with 326,000 viewers. It’s held that spot for 13 consecutive quarters.