Megyn Kelly: After one month, Fox News host is No. 2 in cable ratings

Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File," with Megyn Kelly, had 2.9 million total viewers Tuesday night.

By Scott Collins

Oct. 29, 2013 8:57 PM PT

Well, that didn’t take long. 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.

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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.

What do you think of Kelly and her new show?