History Channel, Food Network Outrank CNN for Total Prime Time Viewers

For the week of April 29, CNN had a rough time garnering prime time viewers as the network fell out of the top ten and behind the History Channel and the Food Network.

The rankings, which were released Wednesday, revealed Fox News Channel had garnered the most prime time viewers last week with a total of 2.5 million, up six percent compared to last year.

In addition to placing first in prime time viewership, Fox News Channel was also the most-watched cable news network for live coverage of Attorney General William Barr’s hearing, which drew in 2.2 million viewers.

MSNBC ranked third for the highest prime time ratings with a total of 1.75 million viewers, which remained steady compared to the same week last year.

Ninth on the list for highest prime time viewership last week is the History Channel with 1,015,000 total viewers. The Food Network ranked 15th on the list with 787,00 total prime time viewers, followed by CNN, which had a difficult week in prime time.

With only 755,000 total prime time viewers, CNN averaged 184,000 demo viewers, which is down 36 percent from the comparable last week. CNN also fell 12 percent in total viewers compared to the same time last year.

The top ten cable networks for most prime time viewers are as follows:

1. Fox News (2,502,000)
2. TNT (2,321,000)
3. MSNBC (1,754,000)
4. ESPN (1,579,000)
5. HGTV (1,205,000)
6. A&E (1,170,000)
7. NBCSN (1,136,000)
8. USA (1,040,000)
9. History (1,015,000)
10. TBS (1,015,000)

It was announced Monday that CNN had axed more than 100 jobs at the network.

After the news broke, CNN’s Brian Stelter claimed there were “no layoff” but instead “voluntary buyouts throughout the organization, and about 100 people opted for it.”

There's a rumor making the rounds today about big impending layoffs at CNN. A CNN spokeswoman is knocking it down on the record: "No layoffs." There WERE voluntary buyouts throughout the organization, and about 100 people opted for it.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 6, 2019