Fox News Wins Kavanaugh-Ford Hearing Cable Ratings Race

Fox News Channel had 5.69 million total viewers for the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearing September 27, which saw Dr. Christine Blasey Ford offer testimony accusing Kavanaugh of sexual wrongdoing when he was a teen, and Kavanaugh deny the accusations. That beat MSNBC and CNN combined; MSNBC had 2.89 million total viewers and CNN had 2.52 million.

Fox News also won the demo race from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with 1.07 million viewers 25-54, ahead of CNN’s 736,000 and MSNBC’s 464,000.

The ratings are Nielsen's early numbers.

On a day when much of the country was tuned to the news, Fox’s prime averaged 5.5 million total viewers, and 1.31 million people 25-54. MSNBC did 3.18 million total viewers and 721,000 in 25-54. CNN had 1.9 million total viewers in prime, and 669,000 in the 25-54 demo.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.