Fox News continues its reign as the cable news king, but the News Corp. news channel is not immune to the slowdown in cable news. This was Fox’s lowest quarter since the second quarter 2008. In primetime, Fox News is down -1% in total viewers and down -14% in younger viewers.  In total day viewing FNC is up +2% in total viewers and down -5% in younger viewers. Fox News has the top 13 cable news programs in Total Viewers and 13 of the top 15 in A25-54 viewers.

The ratings for Q2 2012:

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 1.791M Total Viewers / 355,000 A25-54
• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 1.052M Total Viewers / 254,000 A25-54

With primetime showing declines: Bill O’Reilly down -18% and Sean Hannity down -16% in younger viewers, FNC’s daytime programs lead the demo growth. “America Live with Megyn Kelly” had the largest year-to-year gains up +21% in A25-54 viewers. Kelly was out on maternity leave for much of Q2 ’11.

“Happening Now” with Jon Scott and Jenna Lee is up +16% and “Studio B with Shepard Smith” (subject of this week’s “My First Big Break” on mediabistroTV, see it Thursday) was up +16% in the younger demo.

“The Five” had its highest ranked quarter. Appropriately, the 5pm show is the 5th most-popular show on cable news, but it is down -21% in the demo vs. Glenn Beck which aired at this time last year. Also, late night show “Red Eye” had its highest-rated quarter in Total Viewers.