Fox News Channel continued its winning streak as the number one network in the cable news ratings, reigning in the top spot for the 17th week in a row.
FNC earned almost three times as many total viewers as CNN during the week of June 7, according to Nielsen ratings.
The Right-leaning network attracted a total of 2.157 million viewers, as compared to 776,000 for the reliably left-of-center CNN.
CNN’s disappointing finish came even after its audience grew over the previous week. CNN saw an uptick of 1% total viewers during the week of June 7, while Fox News and MSNBC both grew their audience by 9% over the same period.
Still, the modest increase was enough to return CNN to the top 10 cable networks in prime time. The network — which celebrated its 41st anniversary on June 1 — fell to twelfth place last week, even as an hourlong special interview with former President Barack Obama drew half as many viewers as a typical episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
TNT topped the cable ratings, followed by Fox News. MSNBC fell to fourth place, behind ESPN.
HGTV, TBS, TLC, the History Channel, and the Discovery Channel all came in ahead of CNN in last week’s Nielsen ratings.
Fox News got more good news when it comes to TV’s most coveted demographic, viewers aged 25 to 54. Of all cable news networks, Fox News was the only one in the top 10 among that viewer cohort. FNC ranked fifth place among the demographic, after growing that segment of its audience by 12%.
The top prime time shows during the week of June 7 again included “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” “Hannity,” and the “Rachel Maddow Show.” But Fox News has extended its dominance into the late-night comedy sector, as “Gutfeld!” beat major networks’ offerings in the 11 p.m. hour.
Greg Gutfeld’s right-of-center humor pulled in a larger audience than Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, as well as cable competitors Bill Maher, Samantha Bee, and John Oliver.
Fox also struck gold with two new weekend shows — Saturday night’s “Unfiltered with Dan Bongino” and “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy” — which again won their respective time slots during their second week on the air.
The takeaway: A star is born. Dan Bongino has had the most-viewed show on cable news for two weeks in a row, attracting 1.5 million viewers last week. With Bongino’s radio show rushing into the void left by the death of Rush Limbaugh earlier this year and his news aggregator, The Bongino Report, increasingly filling the role once served by The Drudge Report, Dan Bongino’s television show could serve as the trifecta of conservatism’s next breakout personality.
Across the board, Nielsen ratings show that the American people prefer right-of-center news, commentary, and entertainment. Greg Gutfeld’s success also shows that the American people have exercised their free consumer choices to view shows that are more conservative than anything offered by the networks. Networks driven by ratings and the profit motive would watch, learn, and change their programming accordingly.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.