Fox Business reports best week ever

Fox Business Network recorded its best ratings for a week during the 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. business day.

The eight-year-old network averaged 157,000 total viewers for the week during that time period, according to Nielsen data.

For the week, CNBC averaged 224,000 viewers during the business day.

On Friday when the markets were declining, Fox Business averaged 218,000 total viewers from 5 a.m. to noon and topped CNBC by 27 percent during that time period.

For the business day on Friday, Fox Business averaged 218,000 total viewers and 31,000 viewers in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic, while CNBC averaged 292,000 total viewers and 63,000 in the 25 to 54 demographic.

CNBC dropped Nielsen as its rating agency a year ago and argues that it does not accurately measure its core audience, which comes in offices and on trading floors.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.