MSNBC and CNN suffered staggering losses in viewership over the past year — while Donald Trump’s ascendancy supercharged Fox News in the cable news ratings war.
The left-leaning networks — which will both be spun off by their respective parent companies — suffered year-over-year declines in all major metrics for the second quarter compared to the same period last year, according to the latest Nielsen data, which was reported by AdWeek.
Comcast-owned MSNBC, with its rabid anti-Trump lineup of anchors, drew an average 1.008 million primetime viewers from April to June, a year-over-year decline of 15%, Nielsen figures show.
In the the advertiser-covered 25-to-54 demographic, primetime viewership plunged 20%, to 91,000 compared to last year — despite star anchor Rachel Maddow returning to full-time duty during the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
Jen Psaki took over her 9 p.m. primetime slot Tuersdays through Fridays midway through the second quarter ratings period.
The exodus of eyeballs was even worse during the day, with total viewership plummeting 26%, to an average of 596,000, and 31%, to 57,000, in the key demo compared to the same quarter last year.
CNN, which has languished in last place despite paying anchor Anderson Cooper a reported $18 million in salary, averaged 538,000 total viewers in primetime for the three-month period and 105,000 in the demo, according to Nielsen
Year-over-year, the network saw declines of 13% in total viewers in primetime and a 15% drop in the 25-54 demo compared to the second quarter of last year.
The cable news pioneer, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, dropped 14% in total viewers during the day, to an average of 406,000, and 16% in the demo, to 71,000, year-over-year, according to Nielsen.
CNN attempted to put a positive spin on its shrinking viewership, touting strong June numbers as well as its robust digital and streaming audience worldwide. CNN’s total viewership in June rose 26% over May, with notable gains in key demos during all day parts, the company said.
“June was the highest month of 2025 for CNN television in the US among both P25-54 and [total viewers], with CNN being a top 5 network in all of cable,” a spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday.
“Stories like these are an outdated view of the media landscape and do not reflect how audiences today actually consume news.”
The Post reached out to MSNBC for comment.
Fox News, meanwhile, continued to dominate its rivals — extend its winning streak to 94 consecutive quarters as the top-rated cable news network.
The conservative network’s total primetime viewership spiked 25%, averaging 2.633 million, and 34%, to 304,000, in the demo compared to the second quarter of last year.
During total day, it climbed 25% in total viewers, to 1.632 million viewers, and drew 202,000 in the demo, a 31% increase, compared to last year.
It was the second-highest-rated second quarter in network history with weekday total day viewers, trailing its coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, according to AdWeek.
Fox News is owned by Fox Corp — sister company to The Post’s owner News Corp.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
