Nolte: Fox News 2025 Ratings Humiliate CNN and MS NOW

With 2025 behind us, I’m pleased to announce that we can enter the Year of Our Lord 2026 laughing at CNN’s dismal ratings and imminent death.

Throughout last year, CNNLOL managed to attract an average of only 580,000 total primetime viewers and 105,000 average viewers in the 25-54 age group that sets advertiser rates — and let’s face it, without trial attorneys and Big Pharma, CNN would be lucky to have any advertisers at all.

The news was no better for CNN in total day viewers, where CNN averaged just 436,000 total viewers and 71,000 demo viewers.

In every 2025 metric compared to the previous year, CNNLOL was down-down-down.

CNN defenders might say, Well, that’s because 2024 was a presidential election year. Of course, fewer people tuned in during an off-election year.

Except.

Compared to the 2024 presidential election year, Fox News increased its total viewership by double-digits in 2025. Average total primetime viewers at Fox were up 14 percent to 2.72 million, which is nearly five(!) times as many primetime viewers as CNNLOL. Throughout the full day, Fox News increased its 2025 total viewers by 18 percent over 2024, with a 1.7 million average.

Fox News also crushed the garbage network formerly known as MSNBC. Compared to 2024, MS NOW lost 25 percent of its total primetime viewers in 2025, averaging only 925,000. Throughout the full day, MS NOW lost a whopping 30 percent of its viewers with an average of just 552,000.

Below are charts that include the percentages compared to 2024:

Average 2025 Primetime Viewers / Demo Viewers

Fox News: 2.72M (+14) / 287,000 (+18)
MS NOW: 923,000 (-25) / 81,000 (-39)
CNNLOL: 580,000 (-15) / 105,000 (-29)

Average 2025 Total Day Viewers / Demo Viewers

Fox News: 1.7M (+18) / 185,000 (-1)
MS NOW: 552,000 (-30) / 49,000 (-42)
CNNLOL: 436,000 (-9) / 71,000 (-22)

The averages above include the weekends. If you only look at the 2025 Monday through Friday primetime average for all of 2025, Fox News not only humiliates CNN and MS NOW, Fox’s Monday through Friday primetime average of 3.2 million total viewers beats NBC’s 3.1 million, and was only a little behind CBS’s 3.21 million and ABC’s 3.4 million.

Yes, Fox News is competing with the broadcast networks during primetime.

So, the issue here is not that people grew tired of the news in 2025 or that there was not enough news to sustain viewer interest. Instead, more people simply tuned out CNNLOL and MS NOW because of this…

What’s more, the primary mistake MS NOW and CNN made with their core left-wing audience was not all the lying. Rather, it was an existential lie both outlets told their viewers for most of the last decade — that Donald Trump and the MAGA movement were doomed and all you had to do was hang on through the commercial break to watch it happen.

Democrats don’t care if the media lie. They expect and want the media to lie. Lies used to damage the Democrat Party’s enemies are wanted and desired. Bring on the Russia Hoax! Bring on the false rape claims! Whatever it takes! But when CNN and MS NOW assured Democrat viewers that Trump and Trumpism were dead and that Kamala Harris would brat her way to the Oval Office, that’s when the base fled. Lying to the American people is one thing. Lying to the leftist base is another. Democrats feel cheated, used, and demoralized by CNN and MS NOW, as well they should.

Additionally, anyone who paid attention to the 2025 news cycle knows that CNN and MS NOW have lost more than viewers. Neither had any real impact on the 2025 news cycle. Both outlets, and we’re seeing this with other legacy outlets as well, are losing the thing they treasure even more than ratings: their ability to impact and influence the national political conversation.

John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.

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