annabenedetti
like marbles on glass
The "sad, sad" world of cable TV news (and their elderly viewers). Any talk of "the MSM" is, and has been, meaningless.
I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was this bad.
.
And, ok, yes — this isn’t breaking news — but looking at where things stand for the average linear TV audiences on cable TV networks in the final week of September 2025 . . . wow.
The cable bundle has really meaningfully become, as predicted, just sports and news.
More accurately — the cable TV bundle is just ESPN, 3 cable news networks and one lifestyle network on a given evening.
Elsewhere, primetime audience viewership numbers are more brutal than I expected — across the board. Let’s dive in.
The following is from Sept. 22 thru Sept. 28, and just centers on live/same-day audiences (no delayed viewing).
PRIMETIME AUDIENCE AVERAGES
NEWS NETWORKS
SO:
In a world with about 60M folks subscribed to / getting most name-brand cable TV networks as part of the TV bundles they pay for each month — only 1 general entertainment network had over 400k viewers on a given night . . . and 4 general entertainment cable TV networks had more than 350k viewers total during the last week of September.
FOR THE (very sad) RECORD:
No wonder Rupert Murdoch wants a slice of TikTok.
I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was this bad.
Cable TV 2025 is a sad, sad place
The folks at NIELSEN are releasing some new weekly reports with their new BIG DATA + PANEL metrics.And, ok, yes — this isn’t breaking news — but looking at where things stand for the average linear TV audiences on cable TV networks in the final week of September 2025 . . . wow.
The cable bundle has really meaningfully become, as predicted, just sports and news.
More accurately — the cable TV bundle is just ESPN, 3 cable news networks and one lifestyle network on a given evening.
Elsewhere, primetime audience viewership numbers are more brutal than I expected — across the board. Let’s dive in.
The following is from Sept. 22 thru Sept. 28, and just centers on live/same-day audiences (no delayed viewing).
PRIMETIME AUDIENCE AVERAGES
NEWS NETWORKS - FOX NEWS: 2.45M
- MSNBC: 853k
- CNN: 538k
- ESPN: 2.7M
- FS1’s average was 62k 🫣
- HGTV: 492k (49k are under 50 years old)
- FOOD: 383k
- HALLMARK: 378k
- TLC: 367k
- fin
SO:
In a world with about 60M folks subscribed to / getting most name-brand cable TV networks as part of the TV bundles they pay for each month — only 1 general entertainment network had over 400k viewers on a given night . . . and 4 general entertainment cable TV networks had more than 350k viewers total during the last week of September.- That’s about 0.6% of people paying for cable TV watching one of the top 4-rated non-sports or news networks on a given night.
- Of that, the vast, vast majority of those people are over 50, and mostly over 55.
FOR THE (very sad) RECORD:
- 9 networks averaged a primetime number from the 300k to 400k viewers.
- 89 networks averaged less than 150k viewers in primetime.
- MTV, FREEFORM, E!, PARAMOUNT NET, TNT and VH1 all fell in this category.
- You have to go to #139 on the Top 200 Cable Network Programs for the week to find something that isn’t sports, or something on FOX NEWS or MSNBC.
- That something was the Adventures Love Birding movie on HALLMARK Saturday night.
- There were just 4 other shows on the Top 200 Cable Network Programs list that were not news or sports last week:
- TLC 90 Day Fiancee (#158)
- TLC Sister Wives (#172)
- DISCO Deadliest Catch (#187)
- TBS Big Bang Theory (#198)
- FINAL NOTE: CNN doesn’t make the Top 200 list until #189 (Kasie Hunt’sshow)
No wonder Rupert Murdoch wants a slice of TikTok.