Fox News Channel has best July ever during historic news cycle, topping MSNBC and CNN audiences combined

Fox News Channel had its most-watched July in history as Americans relied on the network for information and analysis during an unprecedented cycle of breaking news. 

The historic month featured ongoing concerns about President Biden’s mental fitness for office, the assassination attempt on former President Trump, JD Vance being named Trump’s running mate, the momentous Republican National Convention, Biden dropping out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris emerging as the presumptive Democratic nominee. 

During that time, Fox News averaged 1.9 million total day viewers to finish as the only cable option to surpass the one-million viewer benchmark for the jam-packed month. MSNBC managed 721,000 average viewers to finish second, while CNN settled for 523,000 to finish third, followed by Hallmark Channel, ESPN, USA and HGTV.

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Fox News averaged 3.5 million viewers during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. to easily lead all of cable. Fox News finished with more than double the number of viewers that No. 2 MSNBC averaged, as the progressive network managed 1.2 million. CNN averaged 856,000 viewers from 8-11 p.m. to finish third, followed by ESPN and Hallmark Channel. 

Fox News beat MSNBC and CNN combined among both total day and primetime viewers. Along the way, Fox News aired 99 of the top 100 telecasts in cable news, while MSNBC had just one and CNN had zero. 

It was the highest-rated month for Fox News since the November 2020 election. 

Fox News also finished July as the most-watched network in all of television during weekday primetime, outpacing not only all of cable but also the competition on broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC. 

"Jesse Watters Primetime" averaged 4.4 million viewers to finish as the most-watched cable news program during the historic month. It was the program’s highest-rated month of all time. 

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"Hannity," "The Five," "The Ingraham Angle," "Special Report with Bret Baier," "Gutfeld!," "The Story" with Martha MacCallum, "America Reports with John Roberts and Sandra Smith," "Outnumbered," "Your World with Neil Cavuto," "The Faulkner Focus," "America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino" and "FOX News @ Night" all finished with larger audiences than anything CNN or MSNBC had to offer. 

MSNBC’s most-watched show was "The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell," which finished No. 14 among cable programs. CNN’s best-performing program was "Anderson Cooper 360," which averaged only 985,000 viewers to land behind 14 different Fox News offerings and seven MSNBC shows.  

Fox News also dominated the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54, averaging 498,000 key viewers during primetime and 268,000 total day demo viewers to finish No. 1 in both categories. 

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"Hannity" finished as the No. 1 cable news program among the key demo, averaging 657,000 age 25-54 viewers. "Jesse Watters Primetime," "Gutfeld!," "The Ingraham Angle," "The Five," "Special Report," The Story," "America Reports," "FOX News @ Night" and "Outnumbered" rounded out the top 10 as Fox News dominated the category. 

CNN’s most-watched show among the demo was "Anderson Cooper 360," which averaged 213,000 viewers to finish behind 13 different Fox News programs. MSNBC, which has long struggled to attract younger viewers, didn’t have a program rank in the top 15 in the critical category. 

Fox News even beat Discovery among all younger primetime demos during Shark Week for the first time since 2016. 

All data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research. 

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