May 2023 Ratings: CNN and Fox News Feel the Pain Post Trump Town Hall And Tucker’s Ouster

CNN and Fox News both shed viewers year over year in May, seeing particularly steep declines in prime time – while MSNBC was the only network to see gains. Despite those pains, Fox News remained the most watched network in all of cable news.

Fox News, in the first full month since firing Tucker Carlson, brought in 1.42 million viewers in primetime – a 37% drop year over year. CNN’s total prime time viewership sank to 494,000 viewers, a 25% year-over-year decrease. MSNBC, on the other hand, averaged 1.16 million prime time viewers for a 14% percent gain compared to last year.  For comparison, Fox averaged 2.09 million total prime time viewers in the first quarter of the year, while CNN averaged 568,000 viewers and MSNBC had 1.11 million average viewers.

The prime time demo numbers were even more bleak for Fox and CNN. Fox averaged 135,000 demo viewers between 8 and 11 p.m. for the month – a whopping 62% year-over-year drop. MSNBC averaged 120,000 demo viewers to come in second, which was a steady 14% increase and CNN saw 113,000 demo viewers – a 25% drop from last May.

Fox News still swept the competition, marking its 27th straight month beating both MSNBC and CNN in total day and prime time viewers. Fox’s The Five remained the highest rated show on cable news with 2.6 million average total viewers and 267,000 average demo viewers. Jesse Watters landed second on cable news and cracked the two million viewer mark, while Sean Hannity was the third most watched host on cable.

MSNBC’s gains and CNN’s losses led to MSNBC scoring its largest total day viewer advantage over CNN in its 27 years on air. MSNBC additionally was the closest its been to Fox News in the ratings in two years and was the only top 20 cable network to post double-digit year-over-year gains.

While MSNBC gained on Fox, CNN faced some historic lows and brutal criticism for its Trump town hall event early in the month.

In the middle of May, CNN notched its lowest-rated week since the second week of August 2015, averaging 425,000 total viewers. Additionally, May saw the network drop to its third-lowest prime time demo and its second-lowest weekend demo since 1997.

CNN’s highest-rated show, Anderson Cooper 360, was only the 27th highest rated program on cable news with 646,000 total average viewers in May. By comparison, Fox News had the 7 top-rated programs, while MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and Nicolle Wallace landed at numbers eight and nine – respectively. Ari Melber, Alex Wagner, and Chris Hayes rounded out MSNBC’s top-five rated hosts in that order.

Here are the total day averages in total viewers and the 25-54 category during the month of May.

Total viewers:

CNN: 416,000

Fox 1.09 million

MSNBC: 736,000

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 84,000

Fox News: 126,000

MSNBC: 85,000

Here are the prime time averages — encompassing shows which air from 8-11 p.m. —during the month of May.

Total viewers:

CNN: 494,000

Fox News: 1.42 million

MSNBC: 1.16 million

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 113,000

Fox News: 135,000

MSNBC: 120,000

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