Fox News earns top ratings spot with Afghanistan coverage

Fox News Channel was last week's most-watched TV outlet on broadcast or cable

LOS ANGELES -- Fox News Channel, bolstered by viewers' rapt attention to the U.S.-led evacuation from Afghanistan, was last week's most-watched TV outlet on broadcast or cable, according to Nielsen company figures out Tuesday. The channel averaged just under 3 million viewers. Fox News Channel outpaced both its cable news competition and the broadcast networks that typically jockey for the top spot. The channel, which is popular with conservative-leaning viewers, surged following the Taliban's sudden conquest of Afghanistan this month and as the Biden administration directed the chaotic removal of U.S. citizens and Afghans at risk after the nearly 20-year war's end. The last time the channel claimed the No. 1 spot was in September 2020, when “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace moderated the debate between then-President Donald Trump and his ultimately successful challenger Joe Biden.