The viewership numbers from 2019 through 2025 paint a clear picture: audiences are tuning out of once-dominant news and talk shows.
Cord-cutting, aging audiences, and competition from streaming and social media all play roles. But partisan politics is a major factor—networks openly taking sides have alienated millions of viewers.
The sharpest declines align with networks leaning hardest into partisan activism.
Fox News: The Outlier
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Primetime: 2.5M (2019) → 3.63M (2025).
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Total day: 1.4M (2019) → 2.2M (2025).
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The Five and Gutfeld! now rival or beat broadcast late-night shows.
Fox embraced issues like crime, border security, jobs, and regulation—concerns the public sees as “common sense.” That connection helped it grow while others shrank.
ABC News
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World News Tonight: 8.76M (2020) → 7.21M–8.13M (2025).
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The View: 2.24M (2020) → 2.62M (2025).
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Jimmy Kimmel Live!: 1.77M (Q2 2025) → 1.10M (Q3 2025).
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GMA3: hit a low of 1.12M (2025).
Despite leading the evening news, ABC struggles in late-night. Kimmel’s suspension in 2025 reflects a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding.
CBS News
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Evening News: 5.2M (2019) → 3.85M–4.59M (2025).
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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: 3.8M (2019) → 1.9M (2025), canceled in 2025.
CBS’s plunge is steep. Colbert’s collapse from #1 to canceled captures the audience’s fatigue with partisan comedy.
MSNBC
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Primetime: 1.8M (2019) → 955K–1.5M (2025).
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Total day: 346K–596K (2025).
MSNBC rode high in Trump’s presidency but collapsed afterward. A heavy reliance on ideological framing left it exposed when viewers wanted broader coverage.
CNN
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Primetime: 1.2M (2019) → 297K–642K (2025).
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Total day: 308K–446K (2025).
CNN has hit historic lows. Its decision to brand Republican priorities as “extreme” has cost it the center, leaving no stable audience.
Other Drivers of Decline
While politics is front and center, additional forces are undeniable:
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Cord-Cutting: Tens of millions have canceled cable since 2019, shrinking the overall TV audience.
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Aging Viewers: Median age for evening news is near 70, making long-term retention difficult.
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Streaming Shift: Younger viewers consume news in clips on YouTube, TikTok, and podcasts rather than full TV shows.
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Fragmentation: With endless on-demand options, loyalty to nightly TV is weaker than ever.
These factors hurt all networks—but the sharpest declines hit those that leaned most heavily into partisan programming.
The Kimmel Moment
Jimmy Kimmel Live! losing nearly 40% of its audience in 2025 was a tipping point. His suspension wasn’t about one comment—it was about a network trying to win back disillusioned viewers.
Just as Colbert’s cancellation reflected CBS’s decline, Kimmel’s fate reflects ABC’s awareness that the audience they’ve alienated is not coming back easily.
Why The View Is Thriving
One exception to the decline is ABC’s daytime talk show The View. Its audience has grown from 2.24 million (2020) to 2.62 million (2025), hitting four-year highs while other programs crater.
Why? Because even though The View is openly partisan, it still provides something missing from much of mainstream news: actual dissenting voices. The addition of co-hosts who push back against the panel’s dominant leftist views has created the kind of friction viewers find engaging.
Audiences know where the show leans politically—but they also know they will hear clashes, arguments, and competing opinions. In an era where many networks sound like echo chambers, The View at least feels like a debate. That tension keeps people tuning in, even when they disagree with the hosts.
Conclusion
From 2019 to 2025, Fox News grew while ABC, CBS, NBC/MSNBC, and CNN all lost ground. Yes, cord-cutting, aging demographics, and streaming are part of the story.
But the numbers show something deeper: millions of Americans feel unwelcome on these networks. Until they recognize that and balance their coverage, the decline will continue.
