Over 10 million viewers watched Fox News' Inauguration coverage, crushing all other networks
More Americans watched Fox News Channel to witness President Trump's historic inauguration than any other network.
From 11:30 a.m. through 1 p.m. ET, Fox News averaged 10.3 million total viewers with two million in the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research. FOX Business additionally netted 282,000 total viewers as FOX News Media peaked at nearly 11 million viewers combined.
Trailing in second place in its coverage of Trump's inauguration was ABC with just 4.7 million total viewers. NBC came in third with 4.4 million viewers, followed by CBS with 4.1 million.
CNN, on the heels of its crushing defamation trial loss, reached only 1.7 million viewers. And MSNBC, whose liberal viewership has been in free fall since Trump's election victory in November, averaged just 848,000 total viewers.
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Fox News' coverage, which was led by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, made up a whopping 80% of the cable news audience share, trouncing CNN and MSNBC's share.
Fox News maintained its dominance throughout the day and into primetime. The network averaged more than six million total viewers, including one million in the key demo, from 8-11 p.m. ET.
MSNBC trailed in second place with an average of 1.1 million total viewers and a paltry 93,000 viewers in the key demo. CNN came in third with one million total viewers but edged out MSNBC among key demo viewers, averaging 269,000.
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Fox News Media saw substantial growth in its digital properties compared to Trump's first inauguration in 2017 and President Biden's inauguration in 2021. Fox News Digital had its best day in media initiates and minutes spent since the day after the 2024 presidential election. FOX News Go's total view time increased 83% from 2021, a 72% surge in media initiatives and a 35% increase in unique viewing devices.
Fox News Media also performed strongly in engagement on social media compared to other news outlets, collecting a staggering 8.8 million interactions across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X, according to Emplifi.
Fox News also dominated as the biggest news brand on YouTube, lapping NBC News with a whopping 142% more video views.
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Trump is the second president ever to serve two non-consecutive terms, the first being Grover Cleveland more than 100 years ago. Monday's inauguration took place in the rotunda of the Capitol Building due to record cold temperatures, the first time since Ronald Reagan's second inauguration 40 years ago.
Fox News' Sean Hannity will present an interview with President Donald Trump from the Oval Office on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.