FOX News easily tops a week of Washington scandals

This past week (5/13-5/19 to be exact) was a very busy one for cable news, with multiple Washington scandals playing musical chairs for the title of each day's lead story. As has come to be expected, FOX News Channel was easily the most watched news network of the week, posting its second highest weekly numbers of 2013 so far. For the record, the highest rated week was 4/15-4/21, which was dominated by ongoing coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Beyond cable news, FOX ranked #3 in primetime (behind only industry leaders like USA and TNT), and #3 in total day ratings as well. By comparison, competitors MSNBC and CNN only managed to place in the mid-30s. FOX's lead primetime program, The O'Reilly Factor, also aired three separate broadcasts that placed in the weekly top 25 programs on all of cable. A fourth telecast placed in the top 30. Final numbers for yesterday evening's coverage of the devastating tornado in Moore, Oklahoma will become available later today, but I have zero doubt who came out on top, just based on the existing data. While the country is pretty split politically, that divide does not at all translate to the cable news game. FOX's reign on top continues unabated.