U.S. Cable TV Network & Program Ratings
In the United States, cable television ratings is a national audience measurement system that projects the size and popularity of cable television programming. This activity is carried out by a company called Nielsen Media Research hence commonly known as Nielsen ratings. The media research firm creates a random but representative sample audience of about 25,000 households across America to track what programs are being watched and by whom. By means of a meter attached to each television set of the participants, Nielsen is able to get records of which channel is being watched at all times of the day, as individual buttons additionally record which person in a particular home is watching a given program, ensuring demographic tracking. The collected data is sent to the Nielsen computer center for crunching and analysis after which the final rating results are made available to the cable networks, advertisers, and the media.
Networks: Top 20
Feb 21, 2021| Rank | Name | R-Chg | Audience | A-Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fox News Channel | 2 | 1,325,000 | 5 |
| 2 | MSNBC | 1 | 1,185,000 | 13 |
| 3 | CNN | 1 | 1,032,000 | 19 |
| 4 | Home & Garden Television | 678,000 | 1 | |
| 5 | Hallmark Channel | 580,000 | 8 | |
| 6 | Food Network | 2 | 523,000 | 14 |
| 7 | Investigation Discovery | 1 | 520,000 | 5 |
| 8 | History Channel | 2 | 489,000 | 12 |
| 9 | Turner Network Television | 2 | 482,000 | |
| 10 | USA Network | 1 | 480,000 | 11 |
| 11 | INSP TV | 468,000 | 8 | |
| 12 | ESPN | 3 | 435,000 | |
| 13 | Lifetime Television | 430,000 | 4 | |
| 13 | TV Land | 1 | 430,000 | 4 |
| 15 | TBS Network | 392,000 | 9 | |
| 16 | A&E Network | 1 | 364,000 | 2 |
| 17 | TLC | 5 | 359,000 | 29 |
| 18 | Nickelodeon | 2 | 354,000 | 1 |
| 19 | Game Show Network | 1 | 343,000 | 4 |
| 20 | Hallmark Movies & Mysteries | 335,000 | 5 |
Programs: Top 20
December 2020| Rank | Name | R-Chg | Audience | A-Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hannity | 1 | 4,274,400 | 14 |
| 2 | Tucker Carlson Tonight | 1 | 4,270,800 | 16 |
| 3 | The Five | 3,511,600 | 7 | |
| 4 | The Ingraham Angle | 3,464,800 | 8 | |
| 5 | The Rachel Maddow Show | 3,266,400 | 5 | |
| 6 | Special Report with Bret Baier | 2,961,600 | 3 | |
| 7 | The Story with Martha MacCallum | 1 | 2,580,900 | 8 |
| 8 | The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell | 1 | 2,463,800 | 14 |
| 9 | The ReidOut with Joy Reid | 2 | 2,222,600 | 13 |
| 10 | Deadline: White House | 1 | 2,198,900 | 17 |
| 11 | All In with Chris Hayes | 1 | 2,093,400 | 18 |
| 12 | The 11th Hour with Brian Williams | 2 | 1,986,200 | 20 |
| 13 | Outnumbered | 12 | 1,958,100 | 1 |
| 14 | Your World with Neil Cavuto | 2 | 1,951,400 | 12 |
| 15 | Fox News @ Night | 3 | 1,946,200 | 9 |
| 16 | America's Newsroom | 10 | 1,855,800 | 6 |
| 17 | Outnumbered Overtime with Harris Faulkner | 3 | 1,855,200 | 10 |
| 18 | Bill Hemmer Reports | 6 | 1,855,000 | 7 |
| 19 | The Beat with Ari Melber | 9 | 1,846,900 | 28 |
| 20 | The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino | 1 | 1,845,100 | 9 |
All ratings data are live + same-day as provided by The Nielsen Company.
