The ratings are out for 2010.

Perhaps not surprisingly Fox News continued its march of dominance through the cablesphere, clocking its second-highest rated year ever in total viewers.

It was also the only news channel to hit the top 10 in cable networks, ranking fourth in Primetime behind USA, ESPN and TNT.

Want some context for that? Fox News' total viewers for the year exceeded MSNBC, HLN, and CNN combined.

That dominance came primarily at the expense of CNN which lost 29% of its total viewership in 2010 and 34% of its prime time viewers. Yes, you read that right.

MSNBC, meanwhile stayed the course in total day total viewers - it was the only news channel not to drop in that category -- but dropped 5% year over year in prime time total viewers and 9% in the prime time demo.

Nielsen numbers below.





TOTAL VIEWERS AA(000) Ages 25-54 AA(000)

2010 2009 %Diff 2010 2009 %Diff

Total Day

Fox News 1128 1191 -5% 299 318 -6%

CNN 433 606 -29% 133 183 -27%

MSNBC 399 401 0% 141 147 -4%

HLN 276 308 -10% 120 140 -14%



Prime Time (8pm -11pm)

Fox News 2024 2184 -7% 497 539 -8%

CNN 591 901 -34% 173 263 -34%

MSNBC 764 804 -5% 250 276 -9%

HLN 444 559 -21% 143 212 -33%