MS NOW, the left-wing cable news network previously known as MSNBC, lost a little more than a quarter of its total viewership in 2025, according to Nielsen data. CNN also suffered a notable dip while Fox News and industry newcomer NewsNation saw their respective ratings increase.
MS NOW’s experienced a sharp drop in viewership throughout 2025, with primetime averages falling to around 923,000-937,000 total viewers. This constituted an overall decline of 25-26 percent decrease year-over-year.
The overall decline began with a staggering post-election plummet that continued throughout the year.
The network experienced dramatic changes over the course of 2025, as MSNBC was cut off from the news-gathering assets at NBC Universal not long after the 2024 presidential election. It was instead packaged together with a number of additional cable assets owned by the company as part of a new package.
In order to counter the significant ratings decline — which was emphasized by a sharp decrease of 39 percent in the coveted 25-54 age bracket — the network announced significant personnel changes and ultimately rebranded to MS NOW late in the year. Notable departures included longtime hosts Joy Reid and Katie Phang, as well as a number of additional changes to its weekend and weeknight television lineups.
CNN also saw its primetime ratings decline by roughly 16 percent, down to 594,000 average primetime viewers over the course of the year, according to Nielsen data tracked by The Desk. Much like MS NOW, CNN suffered notable dips in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic.
Fox News was the only member of the cable news “big three” to experience a ratings increase in 2025, as primetime audiences averaged at 2,764,000. This represented the highest average viewership among the three networks by a wide margin and constituted an 11 percent increase year-over-year.
All in all, Fox News accounted for a staggering 64 percent of all cable news viewership, with notable shows like “The Five,” and “Hannity” dominating their respective time-slots. Host Laura Ingraham became the top-rated female host across cable networks, while “Jesse Watters Primetime” in the network’s 8 p.m. time-slot was the most-viewed show in the industry.
Nextstar’s NewsNation, which launched in 2021, joined Fox News in recording viewership growth in 2025, with primetime viewership averaging 108,000-125,000 total viewers. This represented a 16 percent year-over-year increase and a staggering 218 percent jump since its 2021 launch.
The network benefited from major events like the September coverage of Charlie Kirk’s murder, where it occasionally outperformed CNN and MSNBC in prime time slots. Key shows such as “CUOMO” saw 16 percent increases, while the network added to its lineup late in the year by signing longtime conservative commentator Katie Pavlich from Fox News.
