Donald Trump’s return to the White House has been a boon to cable news ratings, but the blessings have not been distributed equally.
Fox News has continued its remarkable dominance in cable news, rising to 3.1 million viewers in prime time in February compared to 2.8 million in January.
Meanwhile, rivals MSNBC and CNN have also recorded gains, but off a much smaller base and after dramatic losses in the wake of the Nov. 4 election.
“He’s been ratings Viagra, again,” one MSNBC producer told TheWrap. “We have seen a noticeable jump [in viewership] since the inauguration.”
Still, while Trump 2.0 has given a much-needed ratings jolt to CNN and MSNBC, which slumped in the election’s aftermath, both channels are trailing the viewership they received at the start of Trump’s first term in office back in 2017. Fox News, meanwhile, has topped its viewership from early 2017, despite being available in 26 million fewer households than it was at the beginning of Trump 1.0.
That reflects the new normal for cable channels in 2025, and indeed, linear TV in general. Simply put, it’s not 2017 anymore. Fox News, CNN and MSNBC are battling for viewers at a time when each channel has dropped from being available in about 90 million households to around 62 million or 63 million. Americans are now increasingly turning to YouTube for their news, where former cable stars like Megyn Kelly have booming channels, and TikTok, where the average American user spends 107 minutes per day scrolling.
Mainstream news is also less popular than ever before. An October Gallup poll showed only 31% of Americans trust the media to accurately report stories — a new all-time low. The news industry, in short, is in a very different place than it was just eight years ago, making any bump worth noting.
Here are the key figures:
— Fox News in February averaged 3.1 million prime time viewers — a February record for the channel and 7% more viewers than Fox averaged during February 2017. Its January ratings — 2.8 million prime time viewers on average — were even with the same month back in 2017.
— MSNBC, after seeing its average prime time viewership drop to 539,000 in December, saw its ratings jump 36% in January and 109% in February. The channel averaged 1.13 million prime time viewers last month. One factor: Having Rachel Maddow back in the anchor chair five nights a week through the start of the new administration. But that’s after the primetime audience fell a shocking 55% from Nov. 4 through Dec. 15.
— CNN has followed a similar path to MSNBC, although its rebound has not been quite as strong. The oldest cable news network averaged 337,000 prime time viewers in December, after viewers ditched the channel and MSNBC following Trump’s victory, with a massive 46.7% drop in viewers. CNN has since seen its ratings jump 64% from December, with the channel averaging 553,000 prime time viewers in February.
The good news for MSNBC and CNN is that their ratings are climbing, finally. The bad news is both channels are trailing where they were during Trump’s first term in office — as well as where they were at the same time last year, during President Joe Biden’s final year.
CNN’s ratings have been sliced in half since February 2017, while a quarter of MSNBC’s viewership has been erased.
MSNBC: Down 25% from February 2017, down 16% from February 2024
CNN: Down 54% from February 2017, down 3.5% from February 2024
Again, this has not been the case for Fox News. Its February ratings were up compared to the first full month Trump was in the White House in 2017, and its viewership has increased 50% versus February of last year.
In defense of CNN and MSNBC, both channels have considerably less reach than they enjoyed during Trump’s first term.
CNN is available in 62.3 million households now, down 32% from 91.6 million in 2017; MSNBC is down 31% from 2017 to 62.1 million households.
Granted, Fox News has had the same problem — it is available in 63.6 million households now — but it has been able to edge its primetime viewership higher, thanks in part to its close ties to the new administration.
It is also worth noting that CNN and MSNBC are working to turn the ship around.
CNN recently made some personnel changes, jettisoning well-known reporters like longtime Trump combatant Jim Acosta. Familiar faces like Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper remain the channel’s top personalities, alongside Kaitlan Collins. A person familiar with the channel’s recent performance added it is difficult to judge cable channels solely based on ratings in 2025; the source pointed to CNN streaming on Max, without sharing specific streaming figures, and noted its digital platform has 150 million unique users.
MSNBC is in a similar boat.
The channel has made several changes since new President Rebecca Kutler took over for Rashida Jones earlier this year, doubling down on its bet on mainstream media personalities by hiring Politico’s Eugene Daniels and Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell to bolster its weekend coverage. And the biggest change was MSNBC getting rid of longtime host Joy Reid — a move that drew the attention of President Trump, who said MSNBC should have “canned” the “mentally obnoxious racist” long ago. In her place, former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki has shifted to prime time. Maddow has also returned to hosting her show full-time, after being down to one day per week, during the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency.
A person familiar with MSNBC’s recent performance noted its ratings jump is even more apparent when looking at pre- and post-inauguration data. Between Jan. 20 and March 7, its 1.4 million average prime time viewers was 95% higher than its average between Nov. 11 and the day before the inauguration.
While CNN and MSNBC are working to make sure their ratings momentum continues, Fox News’ prime time lineup — Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and Greg Guttfeld — appears to have solidified. A person familiar with Fox News’ results also pointed out the channel is not just pulling in Trump voters, with Nielsen MRI Fusion data showing it is also the most-watched cable news network among Democrats and independents.
Looking ahead, CNN and MSNBC will need the recent Trump Bump momentum to keep rolling — even if reaching the same heights as the halcyon days of 2017 appears to be shrinking in the rear-view mirror in the current news environment.
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