What are the top liberal and conservative news outlets in the US by viewership in 2025?
Executive summary
Fox News was the largest U.S. cable news audience in 2025, regularly drawing well over 2 million primetime viewers in monthly and quarterly tallies (e.g., 2.334–3.091 million in sample months) and securing roughly two‑thirds of the cable news audience in Q1 2025 (65–66% share) [1] [2] [3]. On the liberal side, MSNBC (rebranded later in 2025 as MS NOW) and CNN remained the biggest left‑leaning outlets by television viewership in 2025 — MSNBC averaging roughly 800k–1.01 million primetime viewers in quarters reported and CNN averaging roughly 538k primetime viewers in Q2–Q3 samples [4] [5] [3]. Digital rankings and audience ideology surveys show different leaders online: outlets like The Atlantic, HuffPost and NPR rank as liberal by audience ideology, while Breitbart, Newsmax and the Tucker Carlson Network rank most conservative by audience profile [6] [7].
1. Fox News: the dominant conservative broadcast by viewership
Fox News led cable news ratings across multiple 2025 reports and months, posting the highest primetime and total‑day audiences — for example, Nielsen figures show Fox averaging 3.091 million primetime viewers in February and roughly 2.33–2.59 million in later months, and Deadline/Adweek data and industry write‑ups describe Fox taking the biggest quarterly share, including a 65–66% audience share in Q1 metrics cited [2] [1] [3]. Internal Fox press releases and industry roundups echo that dominance for 2025 [8] [3].
2. Conservative ecosystem beyond Fox: Newsmax, OANN and sites
Cable ratings place Newsmax and other conservative networks well behind Fox in absolute viewers, but specialized conservative TV and online outlets remain important to right‑leaning audiences. Pew’s audience ideology work identifies Newsmax and the Tucker Carlson Network as among the most conservative sources, and lists Breitbart, The Daily Wire and others as core right‑leaning digital players [6]. Independent compilations and niche rankings also list Newsmax, OANN, Real America’s Voice and conservative websites as influential within conservative media ecosystems [9] [10].
3. MSNBC and CNN: leading the liberal TV field (and MS NOW rebranding)
Among cable networks identified with liberal/progressive audiences, MSNBC (later rebranded MS NOW) and CNN were the top television players in 2025. Adweek and related ratings reports put MSNBC in the 800k–1.01 million primetime range in quarter summaries and show CNN averaging about 538,000 primetime viewers in Q2 and Q3 snapshots [4] [5]. Trade coverage of MSNBC’s rebrand to MS NOW indicates the network remained a top liberal cable brand and reported circulation gains in week‑to‑week samples around the rebrand [11] [4].
4. Digital audiences and partisan labeling don’t map one‑to‑one to TV numbers
Web traffic and online reach create a different ranking than TV. Statista and Semrush site lists show major general‑interest outlets and platforms (e.g., YouTube, major newspapers, aggregator sites) dominating raw visits, while Pew’s audience ideology analysis places The Atlantic, HuffPost, NPR and Axios among the most liberal‑leaning sources by audience profile [12] [6] [7] [13]. In short: the "top" liberal or conservative outlet depends on whether you measure TV ratings, website visits, podcast listeners, or audience ideology [12] [6].
5. Trends shaping 2025 numbers: cord‑cutting, elections and programming changes
Industry coverage attributes 2025 viewership shifts to cord‑cutting and platform migration, program lineup changes and the political calendar. Adweek and trade analyses document big swings quarter‑to‑quarter (CNN and MSNBC losing viewers in some quarters while Fox grew), program reshuffles and rebrands, and the impact of election‑year attention on audience behavior [3] [14] [4]. The Independent and other outlets reported steep declines for CNN in some quarters, while Fox bucked the trend and gained [15] [14].
6. What “top” means: pick your metric and note limitations
If “top” equals TV primetime viewers, Fox News is the clear conservative leader and MSNBC/CNN are the leading liberal cable brands by the metrics published in Adweek, Hollywood Reporter and Nielsen‑based reporting [2] [4] [5]. If “top” equals audience ideology or online visits, different names emerge — Pew and Statista show distinct lists for ideological leaning and website traffic [6] [12]. Available sources do not provide a single, unified 2025 ranking that blends TV viewership, digital traffic and audience ideology into one list — readers should treat “top” as metric‑dependent [12] [6].
7. Bottom line for readers and researchers
For TV viewership in 2025, Fox News led the conservative side with multi‑million primetime audiences across sampled months and quarters; MSNBC (MS NOW) and CNN led the liberal/progressive TV field with hundreds of thousands to roughly one million primetime viewers depending on the quarter [2] [4] [5]. For ideological audience profiles online, Pew finds Breitbart, Newsmax and the Tucker Carlson Network on the right and outlets such as The Atlantic, HuffPost and NPR on the left [6]. Where you look — TV, web, podcasts or audience surveys — determines which outlets qualify as the “top” liberal or conservative sources [12] [6].
Limitations: these conclusions rely on the provided industry reports and audience surveys; a single cross‑platform leaderboard is not available in the supplied sources and monthly/quarterly figures vary by reporting period and methodology [3] [4] [6].