📺 Axios PM: Cable news collapse

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Viewership for all three major cable news networks — both daytime and prime time — has fallen notably since the week of the election, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer reports.

• Prime-time ratings for CNN and MSNBC are at their lowest levels for the year.
• Fox News continues to benefit from its rivals' decline.
• While viewership on Fox News is down from election week, it's up compared to Fox News' average prime-time audience figures this year.

Startling stat: Following the election, the vast majority (72%) of the prime-time audience across the three major cable news networks has watched Fox News.

📺 Between the lines: This is specifically about news, not a reflection of cord-cutting or other changing viewership habits.

• The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade drew record viewership, and football on Thanksgiving pulled in almost 40 million viewers. People are watching TV — just not cable news.

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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol today imposed martial law in the country — only to lift it less than six hours later, after the National Assembly passed a resolution condemning his move.

• Why it matters: The stunning decree sparked protests and a constitutional crisis in one of the U.S.' closest allies.

🪖 Driving the news: Yoon, who is highly unpopular in South Korea, said in a surprise broadcast that martial law was necessary to defend South Korea from "pro-North Korean" elements and to safeguard the constitutional order.

• He cited steps by the center-left Democratic Party to take over the budget process and to impeach members of his government.
• The U.S. was not notified ahead of time, a national security spokesperson said.
• Demonstrators clashed with police outside the parliament building. The National Assembly, which is controlled by the Democratic Party, quickly voted to end martial law. The leader of Yoon's party also condemned his actions.

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1. 🥶 Parts of the Great Lakes region have gotten as much as 6 feet of snow, and there's more on the way. Go deeper.
2. 🏛️ President-elect Trump and GOP Senate leaders are planning to move a bill within the first 30 days of the new administration to address Trump's border, defense and energy policies. They're planning to use the budget reconciliation process, which bypasses the filibuster. Go deeper.
3. ☢️ Meta — like Amazon, Google and other tech giants — is looking for nuclear power to fuel its energy-thirsty AI data centers. Go deeper.

The Wikimedia Foundation — the nonprofit organization behind Wikipedia — is out with its list of the most-read topics of 2024, Axios' Eleanor Hawkins writes.

🏆 The top five:

1. Deaths in 2024
2. Kamala Harris
3. 2024 United States presidential election
4. Lyle and Erik Menendez
5. Donald Trump

🗳️ Politics dominated the top 10 list, with JD Vance coming in at No. 7 and Project 2025 ranking 9th.

• The year's deaths have been in the top three every year since 2015.

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Career highlight: “As a senior project manager, I get to mentor others. This has always been my goal — I just never thought I would achieve it so early in my career.”

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