• by Wayne Friedman , January 31, 2017

Cable news networks continue to see high viewership — nearly three months after the November election — in large part from initial dramatic moves made by the Trump Administration.

For the most recent week -- January 23 through January 29 — Fox News Channel averaged 3.4 million Nielsen prime-time viewers; MSNBC, posted 1.44 million viewers; and CNN, 1.19 million. 

Those networks came in first, ninth and 11th place, respectively among all basic cable networks.

Looking at total day viewing results, cable news networks post even stronger results: Fox, 2.5 million (first place); CNN, 1.02 million (second place); and MSNBC, 889,000 viewers (sixth place)

In prime time, for the week before, Fox was at 3.9 million viewers; CNN, 1.77 million; and MSNBC 1.415 million — good for first, second, and sixth place, respectively.

Overall for the month of January, Fox averaged 2.87 million; MSNBC, 1.176 million; CNN, 1.174 million.

Non-TV news networks for the entire month of January gave ESPN top honors: 3.9 million viewers.  Fox News was in second place, HGTV, was in third place, 1.71 million viewers; USA Network, 1.68 million; Discovery, 1.61 million; History, 1.5 million; TBS, 1.3 million; and ID, 1.2 million.