A news-packed January has had a significant impression throughout cable news, with NCS and MS NOW (previously MSNBC) posting important good points in each whole viewers and the important thing 25-54 demographic.
This month has seen a number of important information tales, together with the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, President Trump’s ongoing pursuit of Greenland, and the deadly shootings of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by ICE brokers in Minneapolis.
The news-heavy month was a lift to MS NOW, which, in keeping with Nielsen scores, averaged 887,000 whole viewers in primetime, up 20 p.c from the identical interval final yr. The newly rebranded community was additionally up 21 p.c in the important thing demo, averaging 76,000 viewers.
NCS noticed related good points, averaging 660,000 whole viewers in primetime, up 26 p.c from the identical interval in 2025. In the 25-54 demo, NCS averaged 135,000 viewers, up 14 p.c from final yr.
Despite the will increase, MS NOW and NCS nonetheless trailed Fox News, which dominated primetime with an common of two.05 million viewers and 197,000 demo viewers. However, Fox was down in each metrics (26 p.c in whole viewers and 14 p.c in the demo) in comparison with 2025.
January 2025 was dominated by Trump’s inauguration, which gave Fox News a giant enhance whereas its rivals fell.
It was the same story throughout whole day, with Fox News main the pack with an common of 1.45 million (down 24 p.c) and 143,000 key demo viewers (down 43 p.c).
MS NOW averaged 589,000 viewers throughout whole day (up 16 p.c) and 55,000 demo viewers (up 22 p.c). Meanwhile, NCS averaged 510,000 whole viewers (up 21 p.c) and 96,000 demo viewers (up 20 p.c).
Fox News additionally led with the most-watched reveals, with The Five sustaining the highest spot with 3.73 million viewers. Jesse Watters Primetime completed second with 3.01 million, adopted by Gutfeld! with 2.76 million, Special Report with 2.71 million, and The Ingraham Angle with 2.54 million.
The Rachel Maddow Show remained MS NOW’s top-rated present, averaging 1.88 million viewers, whereas NCS’s most-watched program was NCS Newsroom, averaging 730,000 viewers.
Across different networks, Rob Schmitt Tonight was the highest program for Newsmax, averaging 345,000 viewers. And NewsNation was topped by Cuomo with 188,000 viewers.
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