The Top Cable News Programs in April 2016 Were…

By A.J. Katz 

The overwhelming majority of cable news programs were down in April from their March averages, but Fox News still dominated the top of the charts. FNC was home to nine of the 10 most-watched cable news programs of the month: The O’Reilly Factor (2.8 million), The Kelly File (2.3 million), Special Report with Bret Baier (2 million), The Five (1.9 million), Hannity (1.8 million), On The Record with Greta Van Susteren (1.7 million), America’s Newsroom (1.4 million), Your World with Neil Cavuto (1.3 million), and Outnumbered (1.3 million). Fox News was home to the 13 most-watched cable news programs for March and home to the top 14 in February, so the network wasn’t quite as dominant as usual.

The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC was the No. 10 cable news show of the month total viewers, and the most-watched non-Fox News program of the month, delivering over 1.2 million on average per night. That is a 7 percent decline from its March 2016 average. Maddow was ranked No. 10 in total viewers for the month of March as well.

AC 360 was CNN’s top prime time series for the month in viewers (988,000) and adults 25-54 (314,000).

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Fox News was also home to seven of the top-10 cable news programs of the month among viewers 25-54: The O’Reilly Factor (435,000), The Kelly File (417,000), Hannity (395,000), Special Report with Bret Baier (322,000), The O’Reilly Factor repeats (303,000), The Five (300,000), and On The Record with Greta Van Susteren (270,000). Anderson Cooper 360, Rachel Maddow Show, and CNN Tonight also scored a spot in the A25-54 cable news top 10.

While each of the top-10 cable news programs in total viewers fell from their March 2016 average, many of them were up year-over-year: The O’Reilly Factor (+9 percent), The Kelly File (+7 percent), Special Report with Bret Baier (+1 percent) and most notably, Hannity (+35 percent) to name a few.

 

*Because this ranks regularly-scheduled cable news programs, the highly-rated debates and primary/caucus nights are not included.

Top Cable News Programs of April 2016 (A25-54)

Top Cable News Programs of April 2016 (Total Viewers)

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