January 2011 Ratings: Fox News on Top for 9 Years; Beats MSNBC, CNN Combined

By Molly Stark Dean 

Fox News Channel remained the #1 news channel in January, 2011. This marks FNC’s ninth anniversary at number one. The network overtook CNN in January 2002. The network was down -21% in Total Viewers and -31% in younger viewers compared to January 2010 (Total Day, Mon-Sun), which was a big month for cable news viewership due to the earthquake in Haiti.

  • Primetime (Mon-Sun): 1.834M Total Viewers / 436K A25-54
  • Total Day (Mon-Sun): 1.052M  Total Viewers / 255K A25-54

Fox News Channel beat MSNBC and CNN combined in Total Viewers in both primetime and total day. FNC also ranked #4 in all of cable in primetime for the month, and #7 in total day. The channel had the top 11 programs in Total Viewers and nine out of the top 10 in A25-54 viewers on cable news.

“Special Report with Bret Baier” had a big month as the #2 show on cable news (behind “The O’Reilly Factor”) in Total Viewers while “Hannity” was #2 in younger viewers. A not so good month for the network’s 5pm show: “Glenn Beck” was down -40% in Total Viewers and down -50% in younger viewers vs. January 2010, and was the 5th most-watched FNC show.

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