The Weather Channel and Fox Weather Enjoyed Significant Viewership Spikes

2024 has had its fair share of weather events that have received top billing on newer topics such as politics, economics, business, sports and entertainment.

Hurricanes dominated the news cycle, with three making landfall in the lower 48 states. Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 storm on July 8; Hurricane Helene has made landfall as a Category 4 on Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26; and Hurricane Milton made landfall in the Sunshine State in October, touching down as a Category 3 storm.

Helene was the most destructive of the three hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicating that it was the deadliest hurricane to affect the continental United States since Katrina in 2005. The hurricane led to more than 150 direct deaths, the majority in North Carolina and South Carolina.

These major storms, like other weather events that occurred throughout the year, kept America’s major weather networks, including The Weather Channel and Fox Weather, very busy.

The Weather Channel

Hurricane Milton was the network’s most watched weather event in 2024, with October posting its best monthly, weekly and daily performance. The Weather Channel ranked among the Top 5 cable networks in the advertiser-coveted Adults 25-54 demo between October 7-10 and was the top cable network among that audience on October 9 when the hurricane made landfall. That surpassed the combined views of Fox News and CNN that day.

Holy Milton: THE WEATHER CHANNEL drew a whopping (by cable standards) 3.3M viewers at 9 pm ET Wednesday — more than any other cable broadcast in the hour and ahead of anything on ABC or Fox all night. on Wednesday, as well as CBS’s THE SUMMIT. .

— TVMoJoe (@TVMoJoe) October 10, 2024

CGI of what Hurricane Milton can do to Florida.

Wild.

🎥 The Weather Channel pic.twitter.com/oNKeB9pYMs

– HOW IT WORKS (@HowThingsWork_) October 9, 2024

Outside of its special hurricane coverage, The Weather Channel’s top-rated program of 2024 was Weekend Recharge, which saw 313,000 total viewers and 48,000 demo viewers on August 4. 267,000 total viewers and 13,000 demo viewers on Mar. 17.

Fox weather

Like The Weather Channel, Fox Weather saw a significant increase in viewership during the month of October due to coverage of Hurricane Milton.

Note: Fox Weather viewing is not measured by Nielsen because it is primarily distributed as a streaming network. Data sources for Fox Weather streaming: Adobe Analytics, Amagi, Cascada, Roku Portal, Xumo dashboard, Fubo dashboard, YTTV, Tubi dashboard, Hulu and Nielsen.