MSNBC Dominates Daytime Ratings For 2nd Day Of 1/6 Hearings, Beating Fox News And CNN Combined

MSNBC drew a total audience of 3 million viewers for Monday’s second day of hearings into the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, easily outdistancing the combined audience of CNN (1.8 million viewers) and Fox News Channel, which trailed with 1 million viewers—a very rare third-place finish for Fox.

For the hours of 10 a.m. through 4 p.m. ET, MSNBC had its highest-rated dayside since February 2021 during coverage of President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. On Monday, MSNBC delivered a total dayside audience of 2 million viewers, beating Fox News and CNN for the first time since March 2021 during the third day of the Derek Chauvin trial.

For the full day Monday, Fox News Channel prevailed, delivering a total audience of 1.5 million viewers, ahead of MSNBC’s 1.3 million. CNN was third with 694,000 viewers.

Fox News Channel drew attention for its decision not to carry the January 6 committee’s first hearing, which aired in prime time last week, drawing a total audience of just under 20 million viewers across the broadcast and cable news networks.

Fox shifted live coverage of the hearing to its sister network, Fox Business—where it drew just 223,000 viewers—and stuck with its usual prime time lineup on FNC, including the top-rated host in cable news, Tucker Carlson, who dismissed the hearing as propaganda. “The whole thing is insulting, in fact, it’s deranged,” Carlson told viewers. “We’re not playing along.”

Fox News landed in second place on the night with 2.957 million viewers between 8 and 10 p.m. ET, well behind MSNBC’s audience of 4.2 million. CNN was third among the cable news networks with an average audience of 2.6 million viewers.

For the week ending June 10, Fox News crushed the competition with an average prime time audience of 2.268 million viewers, marking the 69th consecutive week beating both CNN and MSNBC in both daytime and prime. Fox News also had 89 of the top 100 highest-rated cable telecasts for the week.

The highest-rated show in cable news last week was Tucker Carlson Tonight, which drew 3.225 million viewers, followed by The Five (3.186 million viewers), Jesse Watters Primetime (2.593 million viewers), Hannity (2.555 million viewers) and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.414 million viewers), all airing on Fox News Channel.