Declining Viewership for CNN as 2025 Concludes

As we approach the end of 2025, it seems there’s a bit of schadenfreude to be had over CNN’s plummeting ratings and overall struggles. The network has, over the year, averaged a mere 580,000 total viewers during primetime. When narrowing it down to the critical 25-54 age bracket, that number drops to just 105,000. It’s hard to picture them attracting advertisers without significant backing from trial lawyers or Big Pharma.

In terms of daily audience, CNN’s figures are just as lackluster, with an average of 436,000 viewers overall and only 71,000 in the targeted demographic. The trend has been decidedly downward for CNN throughout 2025 when compared to the previous year.

Supporters of CNN might argue that, well, there was a presidential election in 2024, leading to those increased numbers. But I think that’s not a solid excuse.

When we look at Fox News, the story is quite the opposite. They enjoyed a notable uptick in viewership, with a 14% increase in primetime, reaching an average of 2.72 million. Their overall daily average also climbed to 1.7 million, which marks an 18% jump compared to the previous year. So, it seems like Fox is quite comfortably ahead.

As for MSNBC, their situation is, quite frankly, grim. They lost 25% of their primetime viewership, averaging just 925,000, and saw a staggering 30% drop during the day, landing them at 552,000 viewers.

Looking at the 2025 figures compared to 2024, here are some eye-opening averages:

• Fox News: 2.72 million (+14%) / 287,000 (+18%)
• MSNBC: 923,000 (-25%) / 81,000 (-39%)
• CNN: 580,000 (-15%) / 105,000 (-29%)

And in terms of total daily viewers:

• Fox News: 1.7 million (+18%) / 185,000 (-1%)
• MSNBC: 552,000 (-30%) / 49,000 (-42%)
• CNN: 436,000 (-9%) / 71,000 (-22%)

These numbers include weekends. Not only did Fox dominate CNN and MSNBC throughout 2025, but their Monday-to-Friday primetime average also surpassed NBC, trailing just behind CBS and ABC.

So, contrary to what some might suggest, viewers aren’t turning away from news altogether this year. Instead, many seem to be tuning out CNN and MSNBC for reasons that are worth considering.

Both networks, over the years, have perpetuated major falsehoods to their core left-leaning audiences, particularly the narrative that Trump and the MAGA movement were on the verge of collapse. That’s a tough pill for many Democrats to swallow. They often expect some level of deception from the media, but misguiding them about the state of political affairs can create a deeper sense of disillusionment.

Recent observers can see that both CNN and MSNBC also seemed to lose more than just viewers in 2025. They appear to be losing their influence in shaping national political discussions as well, which is something far more significant than ratings alone.