Fox News On Track for Most-Watched Year Ever

Roger Ailes' plan was a winner, anchor says

(NEWSER) - Fox News has plenty of critics— including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy —but it also has more viewers than its two closest rivals combined, according to the latest Nielsen Ratings. The figures show that Fox is the most-watched cable news channel for the 10th year in a row, averaging 1.86 million viewers in prime time, while MSNBC had 775,000 and CNN had 689,000, the New York Daily News reports. More»

Insiders pitch plans, from bringing back Crossfire to pulling an MSNBC

(NEWSER) - With CNN’s primetime viewership off 40% since last year, Michael Calderone at Politico undertakes a survey of news insiders to see what can be done for the “most trusted name in news.”

• Resurrect Crossfire: CNN could give people the outspoken MSNBC- and Fox-style opinions they appear to want, but the right vs. left format would keep the network itself neutral. "We were No. 1," says a former contributor, even with Lou Dobbs as a lead-in.

(NEWSER) - More evidence of Fox News' growing domination of cable TV: The network now has the top 10 programs in terms of total viewers, reports Mediabistro's TVNewser blog. Bill O'Reilly still leads the way, followed by Sean Hannity. Glenn Beck is in third, but his viewership of about 2 million is up a whopping 110% over last year, the most by far of any show. More»

Fox, MSNBC are pushing longtime rival into 3rd place

(NEWSER) - The oldest cable news network is starting to lag behind both of its main rivals in primetime, Variety reports. In the first quarter of this year, CNN saw a 23% drop in the key 25-54 demographic and a 10% drop overall from 8 to 11pm. In particular, Campbell Brown's show at 8pm (she's now on maternity leave) got socked by Bill O'Reilly on Fox and Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. Fox leads the primetime race by a mile, and MSNBC actually overtook CNN for the first time. More»

Every cable news channel sees drop-off for first time in 12 years

(NEWSER) - CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News all lost viewers last year for the first time in at least 12 years, a study finds. A Pew journalism group found a combined 13.7% drop in viewership, the largest decline of any news sector, and all three networks fell for the first time since the group began keeping track. Broadcast news, meanwhile, continued its decline with a 3.4% drop in 2010, the Hollywood Reporter notes. More»