After one month, Fox News host Megyn Kelly is No. 2 in cable ratings
By Scott Collins
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES - Just one month after taking over her new 9 p.m. time slot at Fox News Channel, Megyn Kelly has the No. 2 show on cable news.
“The Kelly File” averaged 2.2 million total viewers for October, behind only “The O’Reilly Factor” (2.8 million), according to Nielsen. (The ratings measurement company ends its month a little sooner than most people’s calendars do.)
Kelly, a longtime anchor for Fox News, took over the 9 p.m. slot from Sean Hannity, who moved to 10 p.m. as part of a broader network shake-up. Bill O’Reilly remained in place at 8 p.m.
Kelly appears to have already improved on Hannity’s numbers. As recently as August, he was averaging 1.6 million total viewers. However, October was a fairly high-traffic period for cable news, given concern over the government shutdown.
Fox News still has a commanding lead in cable news, averaging 1.9 million total viewers in prime time. MSNBC is No. 2 with 780,000, while CNN is third with 525,000.
