Fox News Channel held off sports-dominant TNT, TBS and ESPN to regain the top spot on the primetime basic-cable ratings charts while continuing its winning streak in total-day viewing.
Fox News averaged 2 million viewers in primetime during the week of April 8-April 14 to finish first for the first time since late March, according to Nielsen numbers supplied by Fox News. TBS (1.2 million viewers) and TNT (1.1 million viewers) finished in second and third place respectively, fueled by their April 8 simulcast of the UConn-Purdue NCAA men’s college basketball title game. The game, which also aired on truTV, drew a cumulative 14.8 million viewers.
MSNBC finished fourth for the week with 1.1 million viewers, followed by ESPN with 1 million watchers. HGTV was sixth with 786,000 viewers, followed by History (690,000 viewers), Hallmark Channel (667,000), USA Network (661,000) and CNN (632,000).
Fox News was the most-watched network on a 24-hour basis for the 14th straight week, averaging 1.3 million viewers. MSNBC was second with 800,000 viewers, followed by ESPN (696,000 viewers), CNN (494,000) and TBS (422,000), according to Nielsen.
