Fox News Channel crushes basic cable viewership across the board in July

Fox News Channel finished July as the No. 1 cable network across the board as Americans sought information and analysis during a busy month that featured everything from a tragic mass shooting in Highland Park to President Biden testing positive for COVID. 

Fox News averaged 1.4 million total day viewers, finishing as the only basic cable network to surpass the one-million viewer threshold. MSNBC, Hallmark Channel, CNN and HGTV round out the top five. 

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Fox News also finished as the most-watched basic cable channel during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m., averaging 2.2 million viewers compared to 1.3 million for No. 2 MSNBC. The lineup of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," "Hannity" and "The Ingraham Angle" outdrew primetime options on MSNBC and CNN combined. 

It was the 18th straight month that Fox News finished as the most-watched cable news network during primetime. 

The demographic most coveted by advertisers also preferred Fox News, as the network finished with the largest audience of adults age 25-54 among both total day and primetime. MSNBC continued having issues in the key category, finishing behind 19 basic cable options including TLC, Paramount, MTV and FX among total day demo viewers. It was even worse for MSNBC during primetime, when the progressive network finished No. 21 and trailed Adult Swim, A&E and Comedy Central, among others. 

"The Five" averaged 3.2 million viewers to finish July as the most-watched program on cable news. It was the seventh time in the past eight months that "The Five" finished with more viewers than anything else on cable news.

"Tucker Carlson Tonight" finished second with 3.1 million viewers average nightly viewers, followed by "Jesse Watters Primetime" and "Hannity." 

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MSNBC’s most-watched program only aired four times the entire month, as "The Rachel Maddow Show" is only on Monday nights because host Rachel Maddow decided to focus more of her attention to other projects. 

Fox News had 10 of the 11 most-watched cable news programs, with Maddow’s once-a-week offering being the only exception. CNN’s most-watched show was "The Lead with Jake Tapper," but it averaged only 804,000 viewers to finish No. 25 in cable news behind 15 Fox News and nine MSNBC programs. 

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"Tucker" was the most-watched show among the key demo, followed by "The Five," "Hannity," "Jesse Watters Primetime," "Gutfeld!," The Ingraham Angle" and "Special Report with Bret Baier" as the eight most-popular shows in the critical category aired on Fox News. 

"FOX & Friends" averaged 1.3 million viewers and 198,000 among the demo to crush CNN’s long-struggling "New Day" and MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" combined in both categories. "FOX & Friends" has now been the No. 1 morning program on cable news for 16-straight months, and not a single CNN program outdrew it among the key demo during July. 

"Amercia’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino," "The Faulkner Focus," "Outnumbered," "America Reports with John Roberts and Sandra Smith," Martha MacCallum’s "The Story" and "Your World with Neil Cavuto" all had strong months as Fox News’ daytime lineup continues to dominate the competition.

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"Unfiltered with Dan Bongino" averaged 1.3 million viewers to finish with the largest audience in cable news on Saturday, while "Like, Liberty and Levin" averaged 1.7 million viewers to take the Sunday crown. 

All data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research.