With a year without an election, news broadcasts and their websites lost viewership

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With a politically slack year, ratings for most media are down in 2021. Fox News remains … [+] the top-rated cable network in the third quarter of 2021, despite a 32% drop in prime-time viewing year-over-year. (AP Photo)

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Whether on television or online, viewers’ interest in news ebbs and flows. Last year was a strong year with an overdriven news cycle. This year, with a slower news cycle, television and online audiences have fallen.

Cable information networks: Nonetheless, ratings for cable news networks have remained high over the years. third quarter 2021 compared to other wired networks. For the quarter, Fox News ranked first among all cable networks in prime-time viewers (people 2 years of age and older) with an average (live + same day) audience of 2, 37 million viewers. MSNBC was second among cable networks with an average of 1.28 million viewers. CNN ranked eighth in prime time (behind ESPN, HGTV, TLC, USA and Hallmark) with an average of 822,000 viewers. Newsmax averaged 182,000 prime-time viewers and Nexstar’s NewsNation averaged 31,000.

Cable news networks also dominated on the day of the broadcast. Once again, Fox News ranked # 1 for viewers with an average of 1.36 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with an average audience of 738,000. CNN ranked fourth (behind HGTV) with 598 000 viewers. While wireline news coverage was strong with the Delta variant, vaccines and the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, odds were pale compared to a year ago.

In the third quarter of 2020, with the pandemic in full swing, social unrest, a controversial political election coming up and the death of Deputy Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, cable news networks saw record hearings. In the third quarter of 2020, prime-time Fox News was the highest-rated broadcast and cable network with an average of 3.51 million total viewers. MSNBC averaged 2.12 million viewers and CNN averaged 1.53 million viewers, ranking second and third, respectively, among all cable networks. The three cable news networks also led viewers on the day of the broadcast. Without an election, the ratings of the three largest news networks have dropped dramatically. The outlier was Newsmax with a 392% year-over-year audience increase.

Average audience

Prime time (in 000)

3Q 2021 3Q 2020% Diff.

Fox News 2 373 3 508 -32%

MSNBC 1,267 2,123 -40%

CNN 822 1,526 -46%

Newsmax 182 37 + 392%

NewsNation 31 N / A

Source: Nielsen, People 2+ (live + same day)

Cable news programs: To concern individual programs In the third quarter of 2021, Fox News led the way with nine of the ten top-rated news broadcasts for the quarter. Tucker Carlson tonight was the highest rated program with an average of 3.24 million viewers, followed by The five with 2.98 million, Hannity with 2.94 million (Hannity was the highest rated cable operator in the third quarter of 2020) and Ingraham’s Angle 2.35 million.

The highest rated MSNBC program was The Rachel Maddow Show who averaged 2.20 million in fifth overall. In August, Maddow extended his contract with MSNBC and his prime-time show is slated to end sometime in 2022. Maddow has been on MSNBC since 2008. The next highest rated program on MSNBC for the quarter was The Last Call with Lawrence O’Donnell which averaged 1.44 million viewers ranking 15^e globally.

The highest rated show on CNN (and 24^e overall) was Cuomo Prime Time with 928,000 viewers followed closely by Anderson Cooper 360 with 924,000 viewers. Greg Kelly Reports was the highest rated program on Newsmax for the quarter with an average of 345,000 viewers.

TV broadcast: In the third quarter of 2021, the audience of three evening TV news also declined, but not to the extent of three wired information networks. ABC World News tonight with David Muir led with 8.7 million, down 7% from Q3 2020. NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt 7.3 million viewers on average, a drop of 11%. The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell generated an average audience of 5.4 million viewers, a loss of 8% year-on-year.

News sites: Looking at the online websites of cable news networks, the year-over-year drop in viewership was less common. According to Comscore

GOAL
(which measures online traffic for desktop and mobile), in August 2021, NBC Digital News had 159.8 million unique visitors, a decrease of 1.4%. CNN Network recorded 149.1 million unique visitors in August, down 16.7% from a year ago. Fox News digital network reported 94.3 million unique visitors for the month, a decrease of 20.7%.

In August 2021, the number of unique visitors to the websites of traditional information providers was also down from the previous year. In August 2021, USA Today Network had 138.7 million unique visitors, down 11.1% year-over-year. Nexstar registered 86.1 million unique visitors, a decrease of 8.6%. New York Times digital generated 84.1 million unique visitors (-22%), ABC News Digital collected 79.9 million unique visitors (-15.6%), WashingtonPost.com had 79.0 million unique visitors (-24.0%) and CBS News reported 76.0 million unique visitors (-9.3%). This drop in unique visitors to news sites also occurred in July 2021.

If news audiences are down on television, so will they be on their website. With a controversial midterm election slated for next year, the media will focus on which party will control Congress, other political issues and other breaking news. As a result, cable news networks and their websites can expect a rebound in audiences for 2022.

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