Fox News’ Trump-Kim Summit Coverage Boosts Network To Easy Cable Ratings Win Last Week
With its primetime coverage of the Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un pulling huge numbers, Fox News was able to easily mark its 23rd consecutive week as the number one network in cable in terms of total viewers.
During the week of June 11 to June 17, Fox News drew 2.91 million total viewers during the 8 PM to 11 PM primetime hours, according to Nielsen. This easily outpaced second place MSNBC (1.761 million) and HGTV (1.47 million). For total day, Fox News’ total viewership of 1.575 million was far ahead of NICK (969,000) and MSNBC (928,000). CNN placed sixth in primetime (1.027 million) and total day (649,000).
As for the cable news landscape, Fox News not only topped the field in total viewers, but also led total day (328,000) and primetime (594,000) in the key 25-54 demographic. CNN placed second in the demo for both total day (205,000) and primetime (349,000). MSNBC drew demo audiences of 192,000 in total day and 348,000 in primetime.
Fox News boasted the top four telecasts of the week in all of cable and 17 of the top 25 with presentations of The Ingraham Angle, Hannity, Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Five and Special Report. The June 11 broadcast of Hannity, which occurred at the start of the Trump-Kim summit, averaged 5.9 million total viewers and 1.486 million in the demo. The next night’s broadcast featuring an interview with President Donald Trump attracted a total audience of 4.4 million and 956,000 in the demographic.
As TVNewser highlighted, Fox was up 24 percent in primetime from this time last year, largely due to the big numbers the network’s summit coverage pulled in.
In terms of business news, Fox Business was the top network in total viewers for both business day (192,000) and total day (153,000). CNBC led in the key demo in total day (42,000) and business day (33,000). The top business program of the week was FBN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight with 342,000 total viewers.
