It’s no secret that 2024 saw broadcast, cable, and streaming news outlets struggle to attract a viewing audience with a significant disinterest in the news. That reality was made especially stark by presidential election that saw a 25% ratings decline from the 2020 election cycle across 18 networks.
Still, despite changing consumption habits and all the changes happening within the industry, those outlets remained a go-to source for a large segment of the viewing audience.
Here are the 2024 news network ratings highlights according to Nielsen Media Research. (All times Eastern.)
ABC News
Over 67 million viewers tuned in for the ABC News Presidential Debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump, with 19 million total viewers watching on ABC alone. It was the most-watched debate on any network in 16 years, and ABC News ranked No. 1 among broadcast and cable news outlets across the board.
ABC News was also the No. 1 broadcast network across all key demos on Election Night.
Meanwhile, Good Morning America enjoyed its best month in January, when it averaged 2.97 million total viewers. The morning show also saw its best week during that month, when it attracted 3.12 million total viewers for the week of Jan. 15. The morning show’s single best day of 2024 was on Jan. 9 with 3.32 million total viewers.
January was also the best month for World News Tonight with David Muir, America’s most-watched evening broadcast. The newscast saw 8.75 million total viewers that month, recorded its best week the week of Jan. 15 with 8.77 million total viewers. WNT’s best day was Jan 16 when it had 9.17 million total viewers.
On the streaming side, September proved to be ABC News Live’s best month, while its best week was the Nov. 3—the week of the election—and its best day was Sept. 10 when ABC News hosted its presidential debate in Philadelphia.
Other 2024 highlights for ABC News included its Eclipse Across America coverage on April 8, which was the No. 1 telecast on daytime across all demos with 4.448 million total viewers and 920,000 viewers in the advertiser-coveted Adults 25-54 demo. Additionally, George Stephanopoulos’ interview with President Joe Biden following the CNN Presidential Debate took the top spot in its timeslot with 8.57 million total viewers.
David Muir and Linsey Davis watching the solar eclipse in AprilCourtesy ABC News
CNN
The CNN Presidential Debate between Biden and Trump on June 27 was the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle and drew the biggest audience in the network’s history. A combined 52.65 million total viewers and 14.26 demo viewers tuned in to watch the debate, which was simulcast across multiple networks. Still, CNN lead the way with 9.53 million total viewers and 3.379 demo viewers.
Months later, CNN enjoyed its best day in total day viewership in nearly four years on Election Day, with 2.088 million total viewers and 808,000 demo viewers.
As a sign that audiences still tune in to CNN for breaking news, the network ranked second in primetime during Trump’s first assassination attempt on July 13, with 2.658 million total viewers and 1.056 demo viewers.
Similarly, when Biden suspended his re-election campaign on July 21, CNN finished second across all of cable with an average of 2.002 million total viewers and 567,000 demo viewers.
On the digital front, CNN Digital maintained its first place rank in U.S. unique visitors across desktop and mobile web during every month of 2024. CNN’s website was the most-visited site among all the broadcast, cable, and streaming news outlets during the month of November. It also finished in second place behind The New York Times’ website among the Top 50 websites in the U.S. during that month, according to the PressGazette.
In the streaming space, CNN Max’s five best programming days for the year were, in order: the 2024 presidential election on Nov. 5, the CNN presidential debate on June 27, CNN’s New Year’s Eve with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen on Dec. 31, the day after the election on Nov. 6, and the final day of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 22.
Picture courtesy of CNN
Fox News
Fox News had a banner year as the No. 1 network throughout the 2024 presidential election season. It finished 2024 with the highest share of the cable news audience in nearly a decade, and marked nine consecutive years as the highest rated network on television.
Fox’s election night coverage attracted 13.6 million total viewers and 4.4 million in the A25-54 demo. Its coverage of Harris’ concession speech the following day was also first among the cable nets.
Meanwhile, the network’s breaking news coverage of Trump’s first assassination attempt in July fueled its highest-rated weekend ever, with 6.9 million total viewers and 1.4 million demo viewers.
Fox News had 70 of 2024’s Top 100 cable news telecasts led by The Five, which averaged 3.4 million total viewers and 330,000 demo viewers. The Five also became the first non-primetime show to deliver over four million viewers during the just concluded fourth quarter, with an average of 4.032 million total viewers and 432,000 demo viewers.
In the late night hours, Gutfeld! became the network’s top-rated demo show, averaging 355,000 viewers and 2.5 million total viewers.
On the digital front, Fox News had 2.8 billion views on YouTube, with November marking a record month on the platform with over 400 million video viewers. The network’s best recorded day on YouTube was Nov. 6, the day after the election.
A moment from Fox News’ Election Night coverageCourtesy Fox News
NBC News
Today, NBC News’ flagship morning show, finished 2024 with a glow like that of the rising sun on a clear day. For the first time in 13 years, Today stands as the No. 1 morning show in both measured categories for the season to date, averaging 2.825 million total viewers and 707,000 A25-54 viewers. It wrestled away GMA’s stronghold on total viewers by winning its seventh straight week, the show’s best run since December 2019.
Today continues to take first place in the demo, a position it has held for 70 consecutive weeks—its longest demo win streak in over 5 years. Additionally, Today Digital drew 7.1 million unique visitors and 25.3 million video views on and off network platforms.
Meanwhile, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt ranked as the most-watched program in all of TV for three consecutive weeks this summer for the first time since 2016, excluding specials, sports, and syndication. Nightly News is averaging 6.193 total million viewers and 903,000 A25-54 viewers.
During the week of July 29, the newscast posted its first No. 1 finish across the board since the week of Nov. 19, 2018 (excluding ties). It averaged 7.712 million total viewers and 1.456 million demo viewers that week.
Nightly News’ best month was in January, when it saw 7.3 million total viewers, while it drew its biggest demo audience in August with 1.204 million viewers. Its best day in total viewers was on July 24 with 5.885 million viewers, and it’s biggest day in the demo was Aug. 5 with 1.643 million viewers.
As a nice feather in Nightly News’ cap, Holt was named 2024’s most-trusted television news personality in America by a Hollywood Reporter/Morning Consult poll.
On the streaming front, NBC News Now delivered its best day on Election Day with over 100 million views. That was also the streaming platform’s most-watched week on record, while November was its best month on record and the best month ever on 11 streaming platforms.
Five of the streamer’s top 10 best months on record occurred in 2024, including July, August, September, October, and November. NBC News Now recorded its most-watched quarter in history in Q3 and the largest quarterly primetime audience on record.
Today is currently the No. 1 morning show in America in both measured categoriesCourtesy NBC News
MSNBC
On Nov. 5, more viewers chose to follow a presidential election on MSNBC over CNN for the first time in the network’s history.
Election Night saw MSNBC emerge as the No. 2 network across all of television in primetime, marking its best performance ever for a presidential election and its best performance of 2024. It pulled in 2.598 million total viewers and 648,000 demo viewers during total day, its most-watched day since Jan. 20, 2021. During primetime, MSNBC saw 6.009 million total viewers and 1.832 demo viewers for its most-watched night since Jan. 6, 2021.
MSNBC’s best performing week was the week of Aug. 19 during the Democratic National Convention when it became the most-watched network in primetime in all of television. During total day across that week, it saw 1.421 million total viewers and 197,000 demo viewers—its highest-rated week since the week of Feb. 8, 2021. In primetime, it attracted 3.367 million total viewers and 557,000 A25-54 viewers for its highest-rated week since Jan 4. 2021.
August proved to be the network’s best month was in August when it had 1.021 million total viewers and 121,000 demo viewers during total day, with 1.827 million viewers and 246,000 A25-54 viewers tuning in during primetime.
Vice President Harris’ speech on Aug. 22—the final night of the DNC—was the network’s most-watched news event of the year. Viewership peaked at 7.3 million viewers between 10:45 and 11:00 p.m., which stands as MSNBC’s most-watched moment since Jan. 6, 2021.
Turning to the network’s digital performance, its Election Day coverage had a record high for daily video starts on YouTube, and the “Kornacki Cam” was the biggest MSNBC YouTube livestream on record.
Election Night was a victory for MSNBCCourtesy NBCUniversal
NewsNation
NewsNation solidified its status in the cable news space by becoming a 24/7 network in June. And on Election Night, it made history as the the first news network to call the race for Trump, preceding calls from more established outlets like Fox News.
NewsNation scored its highest-rated month in total day viewers and the demo during November. It continues to be the fastest-growing network in primetime cable news, rising +25% in total viewers and +45% in A25-54 month-to-month.
NewsNation’s top-rated telecast of 2024 was its simulcast of CNN’s presidential debate in June, which had over 350,000 viewers. Meanwhile, Chris Cuomo‘s eponymous newscast continues to be the network’s most-watched program.
NewsNation was the first news network to call the election for TrumpCourtesy NewsNation
Spectrum News
Editor’s Note: Spectrum News numbers are sourced from Spectrum set-top box numbers, not Nielsen. These sources do not track A25-54 viewers. In addition, the Spectrum set-top box and streaming data are sourced from all markets where Spectrum News has distribution and are based on a minimum threshold of five consecutive minutes of viewing on one station to count as a viewing HH.
From January through November, Spectrum News averaged 1.76 million average daily household viewership.
During 2024, the network’s simulcast of the ABC presidential debate between former President Trump and Vice-President Harris was its most-watched event.
Spectrum News saw its biggest monthly audience in January with 1.9 million average daily viewers. The network’s best weekly performance was the week of Jan. 7 with 2 million average daily viewers. It recorded its best daily performance on Jan. 9, with 2.3 million daily viewers.
Spectrum News hosted live network-wide special coverage of the solar eclipse in April, relying on its local news networks across the country. From 2-4 p.m. it recorded a 138% viewership increase compared to the previous 30-day average among Spectrum customers.
Spectrum News’ coverage of the solar eclipse coverage in April Courtesy Spectrum News
Univision
The Spanish-language network’s coverage of Election Night averaged 1.5 million total viewers and 617,000 A25-54 viewers in primetime, making it the No. 1 network on all of television for the entire night among U.S. Hispanics. Additionally, Noticias Univision’s town halls with Trump and Harris averaged 1.1 million total viewers and 356,000 A25-54 viewers.
Meanwhile, its coverage of April’s solar eclipse reached 1.9 million total viewers who tuned in to all or part of a two-hour live special telecast.
On the programming front, Noticiero Univision averaged 1.2 million total viewers and 399,000 demo viewers, making it Univision’s top-rated regular news program for 2024.
Vice President Harris at a town hall hosted by Noticias UnivisionCourtesy Noticias Univision
