Amid a looming landscape of languishing cable and legacy news stations, CNN and MSNBC were met with their lowest-rated Januarys in history in the highly sought 25-54 demographic.
The statistic holds importance to advertisers due to the group’s spending power, and the fact that it pertains to both daytime and primetime.
Fox News, meanwhile, enjoyed its best January ever – continuing a 23-year stretch as cable news’s top dog.
Seemingly unaffected by trends affecting its contemporaries, the network is gaining ground as the most-watched overall.
The distinction was once held by CNN, which recently had layoffs to raise its bottom line. The station also aired plans to shift toward a more digital-based model.
At the same time, chief executive Mark Thompson – brought in to address the situation as he has done at both The New York Times and BBC – is reportedly demanding a tone-down in reporting surrounding President Donald Trump.
SpinCo CEO Mark Lazarus, the new boss of the media conglomerate that oversees MSNBC, also expressed such a desire amid their own post-election slump, newsletters Status and The Ankler both reported.
Fox News, however, has continued to fly high – capturing more than 70 percent of cable news’ audiences during primetime since, as well as nearly 50 percent overall.
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Both MSNBC and CNN were met with their lowest-rated Januarys in history in the hallowed 25-54 demographic this month. Pictured, MSNBC’s best-rated star Rachel Maddow
The statistic holds importance to advertisers due to the group’s spending power, and the fact that it pertains to both daytime and primetime. Pictured, CNNs Anderson Cooper, who continues to take home a reported salary of $20 million despite the station’s struggles
The channel averaged 1.9 million total day viewers this month alone – nearly double that of MSNBC and CNN put together.
The left-leaning networks, by contrast, collected 506,000 total day viewers and 421,000, respectively – with the difference in primetime even more drastic.
During the hours of 8-11 pm ET, MSNBC barely managed an audience of 734,000, with CNN securing just 522,000.
This all occurred during a hectic news cycle that featured coverage of Justin Trudeau’s resignation, Trump’s inauguration and the controversy surrounding the president’s parade of appointments and pardons.
Talking heads ranging from Jake Tapper to Joy Reid failed to stop the bleeding – as did a move from MSNBC that brought back Rachel Maddow to TV sets five times a week, at least for the first 100 days of the new administration.
Fox News, during primetime, raked in an average of 2.8 million viewers – a 40 percent spike when compared to last year, while both MSNBC and CNN experienced double-digit declines.
But the real damage was done in the 25-54 demographic.
In primetime, Fox managed to grow its audience by an astounding 61 percent in the demo – as CNN and MSNBC both saw double-digit drops that brought them to their knees, while widening the gap between them and their Rupert Murdoch-owned rival.
Watters – who stepped into the 8 pm hour following the ouster of old mentor Tucker Carlson – has since embraced the idea, pushing it repeatedly on both of his timeslots
Within the all-important demo, CNN slumped to 80,000 viewers during the day and 118,000 in primetime, amid exits from stalwarts such as Jim Acosta and Chris Wallace.
MSNBC, meanwhile, lagged to just 45,000 viewers during the day and just 63,000 during the peak hours of night – with the Maddow experiment seemingly failing.
In terms of percentages, though, the figures were even more alarming; MSNBC essentially lost nearly half of its 25-54 audience since this time last year, continuing a 65 percent slide seen since the election.
In primetime, the network’s numbers are down 41 percent from 2024. When it came to programming delivered during the day, the percentage dip was the same.
For CNN, the drop was more slight, though it served as a continuation of a similar ratings fall seen since the election where it lost more than half its audience in a matter of weeks.
In the 25-54 demographic during primetime, the Warner-Discovery-owned network was down five percent year-over-year, as well as seven percent during daytime.
At the end of last month, the network reported losing 56 percent of its audience during primetime following the usual spikes seen during the election – and 49 percent during the day.
When it came to the election, Fox News remained the top choice for viewers, averaging 10.3 million on the big night, and a total of 2.6 million viewers two days later.
MSNBC’s viewership fell following Trump’s pronounced electoral win, and earned even less in the important sample set than CNN. Pictured, ‘Morning Joe’ anchors Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough
Talking heads ranging from Reid to Maddow have failed to stop the figurative bleeding – as did a move from MSNBC that brought back the latter to a five-day-a-week schedule
Fox News , meanwhile, enjoyed its best January ever – continuing a 23-year stretch as cable news’s top dog. Pictured, panelists on one of the Murdoch-owned channels top shows
The latter was more than 10 times what MSNBC had achieved, and even more when compared to that of CNN.
On election night, CNN earned 5.1 million viewers – a number that dropped back to 419,000 two days later.
MSNBC stayed slightly above but still lost when it came to the 25-54 age demographic – only earning 71,000 in the sample-set in the wind-down compared to CNN’s 91,000.
Fox News, meanwhile, continued to dominate the cable sphere in the days after and weeks since – up 70 percent with the 25-54 since January 2024.
Overall, the right-leaning channel is drawing 1,916,000 viewers in that demographic a day – about four times CNN’s and MSNBC’s viewership, which stands at 421,000 and 522,000, respectively.
For the first month of Trump’s presidency, Fox commanded 67 percent of total day viewers and 69 percent of those watching primetime, amid an already lopsided rivalry between its news-minded competitors.
Given the timing and recent events surrounding, the new Nielsen numbers appear to show that relationship continuing in spades, with Fox seemingly set to widen that gap even more.
Such a fate appears to already be on the mind of MSNBC and CNN’s C-suite, with MSNBC President Rashida Jones abruptly leaving the company earlier this month.
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The distinction was once held by CNN, which recently engaged in layoffs to raise its bottom line. The architect of the layoffs is CEO Mark Thompson, who was hired late last summer to right a sinking ship following the failures of predecessor Chris Licht
The station also aired plans to shift toward a more digital-based model, with a streaming service that will feature longtime stars like Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper
The exit of one of the network’s biggest stars in Jim Acosta has not helped matters, after he left on his own accord before four more years of Donald Trump
‘I shared this decision with Mark (Lazarus), who has been incredibly supportive and has asked me to stay on for the next few months to help guide the network during this transitional period,’ she said at the time.
At the time, Jones said the new boss of the media firm that now oversees MSNBC was aware of the decision, and that she would stay on for the next few months ‘to help guide the network’.
A few weeks before, Lazarus reportedly told high-level staffers how he wants more Republican voices on the channel and is mulling running opinion programming during the day, The Ankler reported.
The changes may come with pay cuts for longtime opinion hosts like Reid and Stephanie Ruhle.
Weeks earlier, the CEO was said to have slashed Rachel Maddow’s pay by some $5 million after she agreed to stay with the network for another five years.
The details came from insiders who spoke to both Status and The Ankler in December, before an even worse January.
Previously chairman of NBCUniversal’s TV and streaming divisions, Lazarus was named the boss of SpinCo in November.
The company is now made up of mostly NBCU cable channels alongside Comcast’s networks, meaning there are multiple other sources of revenue.
Staffers at 30 Rock, meanwhile, have reportedly been left uneasy about the prospect of leaving for a new, less iconic office, following Comcasts’ acquisition of NBCUniversal
The head of the new company created by the merger, SpinCo CEO Mark Lazarus, has reportedly expressed a desire for a new direction with the network since the election, due to its perceived liberal bias
Former MSNBC President Rashida Jones (pictured) resigned this month, amid these ratings woes
On Thursday, Comcast’s executives held a post-earning conference call to discuss its upcoming Cable spinoff, which will see MSNBC and CNBC split from assets like NBC News in terms of who is running the channels.
The new company, headed by Lazarus, will include networks like USA, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel. Comcast will retain some NBCUniversal assets, such as NBC and NBC News.
The streaming service Peacock will also go to Comcast, while being run by the chair of NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios, Donna Langley, and Matt Strauss, chair of NBCUniversal’s media group.
‘When you look at the what remains in the aggregate media company, it’s a strong, strong business, one of the best in the country and, if not, the world,’ Comcast President Mike Cavanagh told Deadline last week.
He called the rejiggered company ‘a free-standing, strong collection of businesses with lots of cash flow generation capability for many years to come, good market position and great focus.’
Lazarus’s MSNBC, meanwhile, is already in the midst of covering Trump’s second presidency, in could be a last-ditch effort to repair its waning cable ratings.
The loss of longtime Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on Friday, meanwhile, is also a big one for NBCUniversal, as he appeared on many of its channels to provide political expertise.
The loss of longtime Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on Friday, meanwhile, is also a big one for NBCUniversal, as he appeared on many of its channels to provide political expertise
He joined NBC News in 2007 as a political director, before being named the network’s chief White House corresponded in 2008.
Six years later, he was promoted to lead Meet the Press, succeeding fellow fixture David Gregory in doing so.
He expanded the program by doing a regular daytime hour on MSNBC called ‘MTP Daily,’ a program that was eventually moved over to the live-streaming service NBC News Now.
The ended when he was replaced by Welker in June of 2023. Since then, he’s been a far less prominent presence.
‘I’d rather leave a little bit too soon than stay a tad too long,’ he said at the time. ‘So while I may be leaving this chair, I’m still going to help NBC navigate and coach colleagues in this 2024 campaign season and beyond.’
Since then, he had held the role of NBC news’ resident chief political analyst, where he would occasionally appear on Meet the Press as Welker’s guest.
CNN, meanwhile, is now in the midst of Thompson’s long-in-the works restructuring plan – one that will emphasize CNN’s digital imprint and that began with nearly 200 layoffs.
In a statement issued last week announcing the firings, Thompson warned the future of the network is still unclear and revealed CNN is set to roll out a streaming service and more vertical videos like those on Instagram.
He also dropped the bombshell that he was replacing Acosta’s 10 am hour with ‘The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown,’ leading to Acosta’s on-air resignation this week.
At the time, the station slammed reports of the brewing tension between the network and the staffer behind the scenes as ‘speculation,’ after it was first reported this month by former CNN staffer and Staus founder Oliver Darcy.
Thompson also revealed another digital venture set to come out later this year – a subscription service for ‘lifestyle’ content focused in food and fitness.
That said, Thompson refused to offer any more details.
Both efforts, he said, are funded by a $70 million investment from parent company Warner Bros Discovery, the multibillion-dollar behemoth created by a $43 billion merger in 2022.
