News feels everywhere. It isn’t.

Only a small share of TV time goes to news.
Most Americans get news online.
Trust in mass media is low.

A few cable networks still pull in millions of viewers and shape politics. Their influence is bigger than their size.

This isn’t a story about ratings winners and losers.
It’s about where news attention actually lives, who still shows up every night, how partisan those audiences are, and why a shrinking, aging slice of TV still holds outsized influence.

Let’s break it down into six questions:
1) What share of our TV time is news?
2) How do Americans consume news?
3) Which cable networks had the largest primetime audience?
4) How old is the average audience for cable news?
5) What is the partisanship for each cable news network's audience?
6) Does the public trust mass media?

What share of our TV time is news?

News = 13% of total TV time.

How do Americans consume news?

How Americans get news (Pew):
1) Digital - 86%
2) Television - 64%
3) Radio - 44%
4) Print - 25%

Interesting: Digital leads, but attention is split across many apps.

How Americans get news from social platforms (Nieman Lab):
1) Facebook - 26%
2) YouTube - 21%
3) Instagram - 16%
4) WhatsApp - 15%
5) X/Twitter - 11%
6) TikTok - 10%

Which cable networks had the largest primetime audience?

Primetime viewers (Nielsen):
1) Fox News - 2.7M (↑ 11%)
2) MSNBC - 915K (↓ 25%)
3) CNN - 573K (↓ 16%)

2021 → 2025:
1) Fox News - ↑ 15%
2) MSNBC - ↓ 0%
3) CNN - ↓ 27%

Wow: Fox News had 14 of the 15 most-watched cable shows last year!

More: YouTube is eating cable news

How old is the average audience for cable news?

Average age (Nielsen):
1) MSNBC - 70
2) Fox News - 69
3) CNN - 67

PSA: The average American is 39 years old.

What is the partisanship for each cable news network's audience?

Fox News has the most mixed audience. 36% are Independents or Democrats.

Does the public trust mass media?

Only 28% of Americans say they trust mass media “a lot” or “some.”

Bottom line: TV news is smaller, older, and less trusted. It is still powerful.