{"id":716462,"date":"2026-03-12T23:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tv-ratings-cable-news-grows-with-iran-war-coverage\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T23:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:00:22","slug":"tv-ratings-cable-news-grows-with-iran-war-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tv-ratings-cable-news-grows-with-iran-war-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"TV Ratings: Cable News Grows With Iran War Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tCable news<\/a> ratings spiked on Feb. 28 with the beginning of military strikes against Iran, and they\u2019ve stayed above their usual levels in the nearly two weeks since then.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe three biggest cable news channels \u2014 Fox News, MS Now and CNN \u2014\u00a0are running well ahead of their season-to-date averages in primetime. Smaller outlets like Newsmax and NewsNation are up too. Year-to-year comparisons are a little more complicated due partly to the timing of President Donald Trump\u2019s last two addresses to Congress. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe war began with early morning (U.S. time) strikes in Iran by the United States and Israel on Feb. 28, and cable news coverage throughout the day led to much higher viewing levels than a typical Saturday. Fox News drew nearly 3 million viewers for the full day \u2014\u00a0the most for a Saturday in 23 years\u00a0\u2014 and close to 4 million in primetime. CNN and MS Now also topped a million viewers for much of the day, a rare occurrence for the two on a weekends. <\/p>\n

\n\tFor the week of March 2, Fox News drew 3.11 million viewers in primetime (more than ABC and NBC), 31 percent above its previous average for the 2025-26 season. MS Now 1.35 averaged million viewers, up 36 percent vs. earlier in the season. CNN\u2019s 1.05 million viewers improved by 59 percent. Farther down the rankings, Newsmax\u2019s 242,000 viewers in primetime and NewsNation\u2019s 206,000 were up 22 percent and 60 percent vs. their season averages through March 1.<\/p>\n

\n\tYear to year comparisons are unfavorable to the news channels, as the first full week of March 2025 included Trump\u2019s address to Congress, whereas this year\u2019s State of the Union was on Feb. 24. Comparing the two presidential address weeks to each other, Fox News was flat (3.95 million this year vs. 3.94 million in 2025), while MS Now (1.43 million vs. 1.18 million) and CNN (1.09 million vs. 716,000) both grew. Ratings for the State of the Union declined this year, so the boost in weekend viewing with the onset of the war likely contributed to the bumps for MS Now and CNN.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first two nights this week show Fox News (3.27 million viewer average on Monday and Tuesday) down about 9 percent (about 320,000 viewers) vs. the same days last year. MS Now (1.76 million) and CNN (866,000), however, were up by about 200,000 viewers apiece. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cable news ratings spiked on Feb. 28 with the beginning of military strikes against Iran, and they\u2019ve stayed above their usual levels in the nearly two weeks since then. The three biggest cable news channels \u2014 Fox News, MS Now and CNN \u2014\u00a0are running well ahead of their season-to-date averages in primetime. Smaller outlets like…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":716463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2265538212-H-2026.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[70445,70749,70984,161080,26256],"class_list":["post-716462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-cnn","tag-fox-news","tag-iran","tag-ms-now","tag-tv-ratings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}