For Fox News, 2015 was a very good year. For the first time, the network ranked #2 in prime across all of cable, FNC’s highest ranking in its 19-year history. In prime, FNC was up +13 percent compared to 2014 and up +3 percent in the demo.
Fox News spent 11 weeks as the number one network in cable in prime–including the week in August when FNC set a cable television record with the Republican presidential debate that drew 24 million total viewers–the highest non-sports cable program ever.
The ratings for 2015 (Nielsen Live + Same Day data):
- Primetime (Mon-Sun): 1,789,000 Total Viewers / 339,000 A25-54
- Total Day (Mon-Sun): 1,080,000 Total Viewers / 207,000 A25-54
All of FNC’s key shows in prime–The O’Reilly Factor, The Kelly File and Hannity–showed year-over-year gains.
Bill O’Reilly marked 14 consecutive years as the number one show in cable news among total viewers, and 15 years among viewers A25-54 (where O’Reilly was up +13 percent compared to 2014).
In the key demo, Greta Van Susteren saw an increase of +8 percent, Sean Hannity was up +10 percent, and Megyn Kelly was up +16 percent.
Other standouts included Special Report, which had its best ratings in five years; America’s Newsroom, which had its highest ratings in eight years; and the 3 p.m. (Shepard Smith) and 12 p.m. (Outnumbered) hours, which both saw their highest-rated year in network history.