• by Wayne Friedman , October 28, 2020

Cable TV news networks posted soaring rating improvements for October -- largely due to intense interest in the upcoming Presidential election.

Collectively, the top three cable TV news networks' average prime-time viewership has spiked 71% to 10.1 million Nielsen-measured viewers in the live program-plus-same day time-shifted viewing metric, compared to 5.9 million in October 2019.

Total day viewership is 52% higher to 5.2 million (vs. 3.4 million in October 2019). All three networks claim record results.

Fox News Channel witnessed continued strength in its total prime-time viewing-- up 139% to a cable network-leading 4.9 million average viewers.

MSNBC was 45% higher to 2.7 million viewers, coming in at second place. 

Like Fox News, CNN has also seen a doubling of prime-time audience -- up 116% to 2.5 million, in third place among all cable TV networks.

In total day viewership, Fox News Channel is 76% higher than the same month a year ago, to 2.3 million, while MSNBC is 36% higher to 1.5 million viewers and CNN is 90% higher to 1.4 million viewers.

The top prime-time news shows were Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (5.4 million viewers); Fox News’ “Hannity” (5.1 million); Fox News’ “The Five” (4.10 million); Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle” (4.07 million); and MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” (3.7 million).