119 Cable Channels Ranked by 2020 Viewership: A Good Year for Cable News (and TLC)
Everyone would like to forget 2020. Well, maybe not Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNN. (Shout-out to TLC as well.)
Fox News was again the most-watched cable channel in primetime, averaging 3.7 million total viewers each night from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., according to Nielsen’s Live + Same Day ratings. That’s 1.2 million more viewers than last year. Elections are big business, whether or not your side wins.
With very few sports and unlimited politics, MSNBC (2.2 million) leapfrogged past ESPN (1.5 million) to become runner-up on the year. CNN (1.8) also surpassed the sports channel, making a huge move from ninth place in 2019 to third place in 2020.
Behind the main cable news channels were ESPN (fourth) and HGTV (fifth, 1.2 million).
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TLC jumped from 11th last year to sixth this year — the lone newbie to the Top 10, thanks to “90 Day Fiance.”
USA Network fell out of the Top 10, making way for TLC. USA ended up in 13th place.
Rounding out that group of the 10 most-watched cable channels of 2020 were Hallmark Channel, TBS, TNT and History Channel.
By this point in the story, you’re probably wondering what channel finished 119th out of 119. That would be Comedy.TV. Again.
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In terms of total day (6 a.m. to 6 a.m.) viewing, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN were 1, 2 and 3 again, respectively.
HGTV and Hallmark jumped ESPN to make the Starting 5. Nickelodeon, Food Network, ID and TNT rounded out the Top 10.
Just like in primetime, USA Network again fell out of the Top 10. While Nick did not, it had a pretty unfortunate fall from fourth place to seventh place.
Poor Comedy.TV brought up the pack once more here with an average of just 2,000 viewers. Wonder what kind of programming they air anyway…
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Find 2019’s rankings by both vantage points here.
Below, we’ve ranked the cable channels based off of Live + Same Day ratings and not include delayed viewing. While there is certainly a very good argument to have included DVR viewing, in a year when sports were at a premium and news was more vital (and abundant) than ever, we stuck with the way those mediums are almost entirely consumed.
We studied the rankings with one week of delayed viewing, and not a whole lot changed. In primetime, for example, TLC leaps over HGTV, History and the otherwise 11th-place Discovery Channel also move up, dropping TNT out of the Top 10.
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Here are the 2020 primetime (8 p.m. through 11 p.m., Monday through Sunday) averages and rankings:
*Rank*
*Network*
*Viewers (000)*
1
FOX NEWS CHANNEL
3,651
2
MSNBC
2,153
3
CNN
1,794
4
ESPN
1,451
5
HOME AND GARDEN TV
1,211
6
TLC
1,143
7
HALLMARK CHANNEL
1,047
8
TBS NETWORK
1,042
9
TURNER NETWORK TELEVISION
925
10
HISTORY
889
11
DISCOVERY CHANNEL
841
12
FOOD NETWORK
822
13
USA NETWORK
799
14
A&E NETWORK
749
15
INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY
693
16
INSP
640
17
BRAVO
575
18
TV LAND
561
19
HALLMARK MOVIES & MYSTERIES
546
20
LIFETIME TELEVISION
537
21
FX
532
22
AMC
511
23
ADULT SWIM
506
24
FREEFORM
444
25
NICK-AT-NITE
434
25
GSN
434
27
SYFY
430
28
WETV
413
29
PARAMOUNT
404
30
ANIMAL PLANET
381
31
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
372
31
TRAVEL CHANNEL
372
33
BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TV
345
33
MTV
345
35
DISNEY CHANNEL
342
36
COMEDY CENTRAL
327
37
NICK JR
321
38
E!
306
39
DISNEY JUNIOR
305
40
VH1
298
41
HBO PRIME
295
41
OXYGEN MEDIA
295
43
LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK
268
44
OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK
267
45
HLN
258
45
SCIENCE
258
47
NAT GEO WILD
247
48
NBC SPORTS NETWORK
240
49
CNBC
235
50
DIY NETWORK
229
51
FOX SPORTS 1
227
51
MOTOR TREND
227
53
FXX
222
54
CMT
221
55
BBC-AMERICA
220
56
WGN AMERICA
214
57
SUNDANCE TV
205
58
NFL NETWORK
203
59
IFC TV
200
60
ESPN2
196
61
POP
195
62
FAMILY ENT TV
191
63
TRUTV
188
64
THE WEATHER CHANNEL
172
65
COOKING CHANNEL
137
66
GALAVISION
127
66
TV ONE
127
68
FX MOVIE CHANNEL
120
68
FYI
120
70
UP
117
71
REELZCHANNEL
116
72
NEWSMAX TV
113
73
SMITHSONIAN
111
74
SHOWTIME PRIME
106
75
HALLMARK DRAMA
104
76
FOX BUSINESS NETWORK
103
77
STARZ PRIMARY
101
78
GOLF CHANNEL
95
78
TUDN
95
80
AMERICAN HEROES CHANNEL
94
81
GREAT AMERICAN COUNTRY
91
82
DESTINATION AMERICA
90
82
DISNEY XD
90
84
BOOMERANG
89
84
NICKTOONS
89
86
UNIVERSO
85
87
MLB NETWORK
75
88
DISCOVERY EN ESPANOL
74
89
RFD-TV
71
90
STARZ ENCORE PRIMARY
70
91
VICE
68
92
OVATION
64
93
AXS TV
59
94
TEENNICK
57
95
BIG TEN NETWORK
55
95
DISCOVERY LIFE CHANNEL
55
97
DISCOVERY FAMILY CHANNEL
54
97
MTV2
54
99
NBA-TV
47
100
ESPNU
44
100
FOX DEPORTES
44
100
LOGO
44
103
DISCOVERY FAMILIA
39
104
BET HER
38
104
TENNIS CHANNEL
38
106
MAXPRIME
37
107
ESPNEWS
36
108
BABY FIRST TV
35
109
ESPN DEPORTES
32
109
UNIVERSAL KIDS
32
111
CNN EN ESPANOL
26
112
FOX SPORTS 2
25
113
FUSE
21
114
JUSTICE CENTRAL
11
115
NEWSY
9
116
BEIN SPORT ESPANOL
8
117
EL REY
7
118
BEIN SPORT
4
119
COMEDY.TV
3
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And in terms of total day (6 a.m. to 6 a.m., Monday through Sunday), the results and rankings look like this:
*Rank*
*Network*
*Viewers (000)*
1
FOX NEWS CHANNEL
1,915
2
MSNBC
1,245
3
CNN
1,133
4
HOME AND GARDEN TV
681
5
HALLMARK CHANNEL
582
6
ESPN
546
7
NICKELODEON
518
8
FOOD NETWORK
509
8
INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY
509
10
TURNER NETWORK TELEVISION
478
11
HISTORY
470
12
USA NETWORK
456
13
TBS NETWORK
434
14
TV LAND
421
15
TLC
416
16
A&E NETWORK
411
17
INSP
377
18
HALLMARK MOVIES & MYSTERIES
374
19
DISCOVERY CHANNEL
359
20
GSN
323
21
DISNEY CHANNEL
303
22
LIFETIME TELEVISION
302
23
THE CARTOON NETWORK
283
24
DISNEY JUNIOR
281
25
FX
278
26
AMC
268
27
WETV
265
28
PARAMOUNT
263
29
MTV
247
30
FREEFORM
238
31
NICK JR
233
32
HLN
229
33
COMEDY CENTRAL
227
34
OXYGEN MEDIA
226
35
ANIMAL PLANET
225
36
TRAVEL CHANNEL
222
36
SYFY
222
38
BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TV
212
39
BRAVO
208
40
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
203
41
WGN AMERICA
189
42
LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK
188
43
VH1
174
44
CNBC
171
45
SCIENCE
164
46
E!
163
47
OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK
152
48
MOTOR TREND
149
49
NAT GEO WILD
148
50
THE WEATHER CHANNEL
144
51
FOX BUSINESS NETWORK
142
52
CMT
139
53
DIY NETWORK
135
54
FXX
131
54
SUNDANCE TV
131
56
BBC-AMERICA
129
57
FOX SPORTS 1
119
58
TRUTV
118
59
HBO PRIME
117
60
NBC SPORTS NETWORK
110
61
POP
107
62
ESPN2
106
63
NICKTOONS
103
63
IFC TV
103
65
NFL NETWORK
96
66
UP
92
66
FAMILY ENT TV
92
68
NEWSMAX TV
87
68
TV ONE
87
70
COOKING CHANNEL
84
70
GOLF CHANNEL
84
72
BOOMERANG
82
73
FX MOVIE CHANNEL
80
74
DISNEY XD
79
75
FYI
77
76
HALLMARK DRAMA
72
76
SMITHSONIAN
72
78
AMERICAN HEROES CHANNEL
71
79
REELZCHANNEL
68
80
TEENNICK
64
81
GREAT AMERICAN COUNTRY
58
82
DESTINATION AMERICA
56
83
STARZ PRIMARY
53
83
SHOWTIME PRIME
53
85
GALAVISION
50
86
UNIVERSO
45
87
STARZ ENCORE PRIMARY
44
88
MLB NETWORK
42
88
OVATION
42
90
MTV2
40
91
VICE
37
92
LOGO
36
93
UNIVERSAL KIDS
35
94
TUDN
34
95
DISCOVERY LIFE CHANNEL
33
95
BABY FIRST TV
33
95
DISCOVERY EN ESPANOL
33
98
DISCOVERY FAMILY CHANNEL
29
98
TENNIS CHANNEL
29
100
NBA-TV
26
100
BET HER
26
102
RFD-TV
24
102
AXS TV
24
104
ESPNU
23
105
MAXPRIME
22
106
ESPNEWS
21
107
BIG TEN NETWORK
19
108
DISCOVERY FAMILIA
16
109
FOX DEPORTES
15
110
FOX SPORTS 2
13
110
CNN EN ESPANOL
13
110
ESPN DEPORTES
13
113
FUSE
12
114
BEIN SPORT ESPANOL
10
115
JUSTICE CENTRAL
7
116
EL REY
6
117
NEWSY
5
118
BEIN SPORT
4
119
COMEDY.TV
2
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