• by Wayne Friedman , May 24, 2017

National media networks grew 26% in the most recent week when it came to “person-viewing hours,” with year-to-date viewing up 13%, says Pivotal Research Group.

This amounted to 929 million person-viewing hours during the 21st week of 2017 against 739 million in the year-ago period.

Looking at just the three big cable news networks -- MSNBC, CNN and Fox News Channel -- viewing gained a massive 57% during the most recent week. Those networks are now up 31% for 2017 so far through 21 weeks, versus the same period the year before.

MSNBC has grown the most -- up 114%, CNN has added 76%, and Fox News Channel is 25% higher. English-language broadcast networks’ news fell by 7% for the week. They are down by the same amount year-to-date.

Looking at overall TV/media companies for the year to date: 21st Century Fox is now at a 32% share of all news programming viewing, with NBCUniversal, 28% share; and Time Warner at a 19% share.

Top shows for the most recent week in Pivotal’s person-viewing hours measure were: CNN “360 with Anderson Cooper,” 24.6 million; Fox’s “Live with Tucker Carlson Tonight,” 22.1 million; NBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” 21.3 million; Fox’s “The Five,” 18.5 million; MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” 17.4 million; and Fox’s “Hannity” at 16 million.