Top 20 Rated Cable News Programs in 2024

Here were the top-rated cable news programs for the year 2024 via Nielsen Media Research:

1. The Five, Fox News: 3.4 million viewers
2. Jesse Watters Primetime, Fox News: 3.1 million
3. Hannity, Fox News: 2.8 million
4. Gutfeld, Fox News: 2.53 million
5. The Ingraham Angle, Fox News: 2.51 million
6. Special report with Bret Baier, Fox News: 2.4 million
7. In total, Fox News: 1.9 million
8. The Faulkner Focus, Fox News: 1.8 million
9. America’s Newsroom, Fox News: 1.74 million
10. American Reports, Fox News: 1.7 million
11. The Story, Fox News: 1.7 million
12. Your World with Neil Cavuto, Fox News: 1.7 million
13. Deadline: The White House (5-6 p.m.), MSNBC: 1.53 million
14. The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC: 1.5 million
15. Deadline: The White House (4 p.m.-5 p.m.), MSNBC: 1.46 million
16. The Beat with Ari Melber, MSNBC: 1.45 million
17. Maddow/Wagner average (9 p.m.), MSNBC: 1.44 million
18. Fox News at Night, Fox News: 1.41 million
19. Hayes/Psaki average (8 p.m.), MSNBC: 1.39 million
20. Reidout, MSNBC: 1.31 million

And for a few thoughts:

No CNN

Not a single program on CNN cracked the top 20. The channel’s highest-rated program, Anderson Cooper 360averaged just 748,000 viewers, good for just 27th in cable news.

Further, how CNN covers the second Trump presidency is one of the most exciting stories in media for 2025. The entire network’s lineup is down about 50% since the November 5th election. And very few shows have much, if any, momentum.

CNN chief executive Mark Thompson faces the challenge of not just covering Trump, but installing a network identity. For all its ills, and there were many, at least viewers knew what CNN was under Jeff Zucker: an MSNBC lite.

Since Zucker’s abrupt departure in 2022, CNN has struggled to establish a brand, a reason for viewers to choose the network over other cable competitors.

And based on ratings in 2024, most viewers couldn’t find a reason to choose CNN.

Clean top 10 sweep for Fox News

Fox News accounted for all 10 of the most-watched shows on cable news in 2024, accounting for 56% of the cable news audience in prime time and 53% in total days.

Since the election, Fox News has accounted for 72% of all cable news viewership.

Jesse Watters was perhaps the biggest individual winner of the year, hosting the two highest-rated shows of the year: The five and Jesse Watters Primetimewhich also happen to be the only two shows to average at least 3 million viewers over the course of the year.

In addition, Watters claims to have saved the world. No, literally. It’s the name of his book, which he discussed at length with OutKick.

Harris Faulkner’s years are also worth highlighting. Both her daily shows, Outnumbered and that Faulkner focusranked in the top 10 in 2024, and she hosted the much-discussed all-women town hall with Donald Trump just weeks before the election.

MSNBC started out … fine, but ended in panic

While seven of the top 20 shows in 2024 belonged to MSNBC, the network enters 2025 in much rougher shape.

Like CNN, MSNBC has also lost over half of its audience since Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in November. The channel has also set a 30-year low in that time.

Specifically, since the election, MSNBC is down 65% in the coveted advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic (51,000) and down 57% in total viewers (576,000) since the election.

And the future of the network is uncertain.

Parent company NBC Universal plans to spin off MSNBC and several of its cable networks and form a new company separate from its flagship brands like NBC News and Peacock. Without NBC News, the spin-off company may not continue to invest heavily in a cable news network that is clearly in decline.

MSNBC has already negotiated pay cuts with Rachel Maddow and reportedly informed Joy Reid that she would have to accept a pay cut to be employed by the network.

Finally, we cannot help but declare that MSNBC deserves the dismal state it is facing.

The network humiliated itself in 2024 — be it by downplaying the two assassination attempts on Donald Trump’s life, relentlessly promoting the “bloodbath” and “very nice people” scams, and allowing buffoons like Joy Reid to beg its viewers to loathe straight white Americans as much as she does.

MSNBC did this to itself.

Other notes

Primetime 2024 (01/01/24-12/29/24) vs. 2023 (26/12/22-12/31/23)

FNC: P2,384,000+ (up 30%); 294,000 25-54 (up 40%)

CNN: 685,000 P2+ (up 18%); 147,000 25-54 (up 17%)

MSNBC: 1,223,000 P2+ (up 1%); 133,000 25-54 (up 9%)

Day total:

FNC: P1,458,000 P2+ (up 21%); 186,000 25-54 (up 26%)

CNN: 481,000 P2+ (flat) 91,000 25-54 (down 3%)

MSNBC: 791,000 P2+ (up 2%); 84,000 25-54 (down 2%)

*OutKick and Fox News share common ownership.