• by Wayne Friedman , August 27, 2019

August continues to show mixed cable TV news network viewing results.

Fox News Channel still leads overall -- and among all cable TV networks -- with an average 2.5 million prime-time Nielsen viewers and 1.4 million daytime viewers. Fox is up 6% in prime time and 5% in daytime from August 2018.

MSNBC remains in second place among cable TV networks -- but it lost 20% in prime time to 1.48 million viewers and was down 16% in total day viewers to 870,000.

CNN witnessed a big increase -- up 40% to 1.47 million in prime time, now just a tick behind MSNBC. CNN was down 2% in total day viewing to 690,000.

But in the key news advertising viewing category -- 25-54 viewers -- there were more lower overall results -- except for CNN. 

CNN topped Fox in prime time, up 13% from a year ago, getting to 391,000 25-54 viewers. Fox was losing 11% to 375,000, and MSNBC sank a big 35% to 222,000.

Total day 25-54 viewing witnessed all cablers losing ground, with Fox down 7% to 234,000, CNN giving up 19% to 169,000, and MSNBC losing 34% to 128,000.

Ever since the release of the report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the Trump Administration’s obstruction of justice concerns from Robert Mueller, special counsel of the Department of Justice in April, cable TV networks have generally seen weaker viewers than in previous periods.