• by Wayne Friedman , November 29, 2024

More than two weeks after the Presidential election, there was a massive gap in prime-time viewing between Fox News Channel and MSNBC and CNN.

Sixteen days after the November 5 election, Fox averaged 3.2 million prime-time viewers, with MSNBC at 702,000 and CNN at 469,000, according to Nielsen.

That means Fox has a 2.5 million average over MSNBC, and a 2.7 million average over CNN.

For all of October -- before election day -- Fox News had a 1.4 million average over MSNBC and a 1.9 million average over CNN.

Analysts say the Republican voter-focused Fox News Channel benefited in comparison to the Democrat-viewer focused MSNBC and CNN due to GOP candidate Donald Trump's Presidential win over Democrat candidate Kamala Harris.

Over three weeks in November -- including the day before and the day of the election -- Fox averaged 3.6 million prime-time viewers, with MSNBC at 1.1 million and CNN at 843,500.

Along with this gap in viewing, advertising metrics -- airings and estimated revenue -- have shown mixed results.

For the three-week period since and including November 5, Fox News has been estimated to have earned $244.8 million in national TV ad revenue -- down 35% from the previous three-week period, according to estimates from EDO Ad EnGage.

At the same time, MSNBC has seen a 38% increase over the same period to $27.4 million, with CNN inching up 2% to $45.1 million.

Fox News has seen a 11% decline in number of advertiser airings -- 2,850 -- while MSNBC is 7% higher to 11,680 and CNN is 6% higher to 14,740.