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May cable news ratings spare no one

Make no mistake, Fox News is still the ratings king. But the recent May numbers show that while all the cable channels had a decline in ratings (which is normal for May), Fox News was far from spared, with some of its lowest ratings in 12 years.

While Fox dominates with the top 14 shows in overall viewers, the total day average for Fox News in the key advertising demographic of the 25- to 54-year-old category was 177,000 viewers, only the second time Fox has gone below a 200,000 average since 2001.

Another key factor coming from May ratings is just how old Fox News viewers are. Take for example, Bill O'Reilly's show, "The O'Reilly Factor." O'Reilly had his lowest month since 2001 in the key demo, with 308,000 viewers. Yes, O'Reilly is still the No. 1 program in cable news in both total and demo viewers, averaging 2,136,000 total viewers in May. But the majority of those viewers are over the age of 55. In fact, the median age for O'Reilly is now just over 72 years old. The average Fox News viewer overall is 68.8, while the average ages of MSNBC and CNN viewers were 62.5 and 62.8, respectively.

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Still, Fox remains strong when compared to other networks. For May, in the key 25-54 demographic, MSNBC averaged 103,000 viewers, while CNN averaged just 99,000. The only show to crack Fox's numbers in the top 10 for the 25-54 demo came from CNBC, with “Shark Tank,” which averaged 210,000 25-54 viewers, placing ninth overall.

MSNBC had its lowest performance in prime time since July 2006, while CNN had the least-watched 9 p.m. hour in its entire history, a sharp drop after its quick jumps in April from its coverage of the missing Malaysian plane.

MSNBC’s highest-rated show was “The Rachel Maddow Show,” which placed 14th overall, with 738,000 average total viewers, and 11th overall in the demo, with 176,000 demo viewers.

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"Anderson Cooper 360″ was the top CNN program, placing 21st, with 452,000 average total viewers, and 19th — with an average of 145,000 — in the demo.

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