November was the big one, the month that hundreds of cable news executives have been waiting for. And yet, while the ratings were undeniably strong, the cable news channels didn’t have as strong a month as they had in October, possibly due to viewer drop-off after the election early in the month.
Fox News was the top cable news channel for the month, placing 2nd in both primetime and total day among all ad-supported cable networks. FNC averaged 2.56 million viewers in primetime and 1.47 million viewers in total day. MSNBC placed 11th in primetime and 12th in total day, averaging 1.28 million and 725,000 viewers, respectively. CNN ranked 17th in primetime and 16th in total day, averaging 1.05 million and 652,000 viewers, respectively.
HLN was 46th in primetime and 43rd in total day, averaging 285,000 and 229,000 viewers, respectively. Current TV placed 90th in prime and 92nd in total day, and averaged 39,000 and 33,000 viewers respectively, below Neilsen’s threshold for accurate measurement.
For the business networks: CNBC was 51st in primetime and 53rd in total day, averaging 205,000 and 167,000 viewers, respectively. Fox Business was 84th in primetime and 80th in total day, averaging 69,000 and 59,000 viewers, respectively. Bloomberg TV hasn’t been rated by Nielsen since it launched in 1994.
The full ranker is below.
All Cable Ranker Nov’12