Top 20 Cable News Shows of 2021
by Bobby Burack December 15, 2021, 4:02 pm updated December 16, 2021, 8:13 am 7 Comments
Here were the 20 highest-rated cable news programs for the year 2021 (from 12/18/2020 to 12/12/21), according to Nielsen Media Research
Tucker Carlson Tonight, Fox News: 3.21 million
The Five, Fox News: 2.92 million
Hannity, Fox News: 2.87 million
Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC: 2.6 million
The Ingraham Angle, Fox News: 2.27 million
Special Report, Fox News: 2.12 million
Fox News Primetime, Fox News: 1.86 million
Last Word, MSNBC: 1.79 million
Gutfeld, Fox News: 1.69 million
Deadline: White House, MSNBC: 1.59 million
All in with Chris Hayes, MSNBC: 1.57 million
Outnumbered, Fox News: 1.57 million
America's Newsroom, Fox News: 1.5 million
The Beat With Ari Melber, MSNBC: 1.37 million
The Faulkner Focus, Fox News: 1.47 million
ReidOut, MSNBC: 1.44 million
MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson, MSNBC: 1.44 million
MSNBC Live with Katy Tur, MSNBC: 1.43 million
The Story, Fox News: 1.41 million
Your World with Neil Cavuto, Fox News: 1.41 million
The highest-rated CNN program in 2021, Cuomo Prime Time, ranked 25th overall with 1.27 million viewers.
That's cable news in 2021. Looking ahead, the stories to watch are undoubtedly the primetime openings. In 2022, CNN will replace Chris Cuomo at 9 pm. Fox News has yet to name a permanent host for its 7 pm hour. MSNBC must fill its 11 pm time slot following the departure of Brian Williams as the network also prepares for Rachel Maddow to leave its daily lineup in the spring.
Of the openings, MSNBC faces the most challenges. Maddow was worth roughly one million more viewers than any other MSNBC host in 2021. Plus, Last Word only averaged 1.8 million because it follows Maddow and inherits some of her viewers.
Even with the midterm spike in 2022, MSNBC could fail to average 2 million viewers at any point of the day without Maddow. Current MSNBC hosts like Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid (obviously), and Chris Hayes are not the answer.
Fox News has several options at 7 pm, all of which should keep the time slot among the top 10 programs in 2022. Brian Kilmeade, Pete Hegseth, Will Cain, and Jesse Watters have all proven their value to a solo show over the past year.
So the wild card is CNN's decision at 9 pm. While MSNBC cannot replace Maddow — and the network knows that — CNN could hold close to Cuomo's average (adjusted for the 2022 midterm news spike). Jake Tapper is the safest pick, but Michael Smerconish is another name to watch. Smerconish has guest-hosted the 9 pm hour since CNN fired Cuomo earlier in December. Smerconish has performed relatively well compared to other CNN shows — for what that's worth.
Brianna Keilar and Don Lemon are two other names Jeff Zucker is reportedly considering, both of whom would be damning to the network's ratings. I mean, look at the numbers for New Day and Don Lemon Tonight, neither made the top 35.
Written by Bobby Burack
Bobby Burack covers media, politics, and sports at OutKick.
BobLee Says says:
1.4M watch ReidOut on MSNBC …. I'm almost certain that is mentioned in The Book of Revelation right after "rivers of blood" and "raining frogs" …. If "Eve" had known that might happen, she never would have eaten that apple in The Garden.
Paul Sullivan says:
Those numbers are heavily weighted from early 2021, when she was pulling in 1.6M amidst their Jan 6/inauguration day surge. Over the past 6 months, it's usually in the 1.1M-1.2M range. Still much higher than her race-baiting drivel deserves.
Tyler Derden says:
Missing from the top 20:
Credibility?
That many people watching race baiting bigot Joy Reid just goes to show you that we actually do have a race problem in this country but they've been lying about who the racists actually are.
Exactly. I've said it before. If you are White and watch Joy Reid, you are one self loathing White POS. If you are black and watch her, you are a stone cold racist.
Johnny Robo says:
Chris Wallace forgot to take Neil Cavuto with him…
Common Sense says:
I do find it funny that people put so much stock in what network someone watches and people associate these networks with so much of what happens in the country when, in reality, at no point is even one percent of the population watching any of these shows. It's like Twitter. Not at all a representation of real life.