Trump indictment sparks ratings boon for cable news networks

Former President Trump’s arraignment in a New York courtroom on criminal charges this week produced the best collective ratings performance across cable news in recent memory.

Each of the three major cable news networks — Fox News, CNN and MSNBC — offered live continuous coverage of Trump’s departure from his home in Florida and arrival in Manhattan for his arraignment, with panel style analysis programming and breaking news coverage from the courthouse.

All three channels averaged north of a million viewers on Tuesday, with Fox topping the list at 2.2 million, CNN placing second at 1.7 million and MSNBC netting an average of 1.5 million throughout the day, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Fox experienced its biggest bump during Trump’s prime time address, which it aired in full after he returned to Florida, averaging 4.4 million viewers in prime time, while CNN, which also carried the majority of Trump’s speech live, netted 1.7 million. MSNBC, which notably decided against airing Trump’s speech live, pulled in 2.3 million.

Trump faces more than 30 charges in New York in connection with a hush money payment made to an adult film actress during his 2016 campaign for the White House.