While MSNBC's Al Sharpton is doing his best to make Ferguson story all about him, it's not helping his network gain viewers. 

In what was a very busy news week, Fox News topped the cable news ratings, while MSNBC's numbers were awful.

 Fox News Channel had its second highest-rated week of the year, while MSNBC was stuck at the bottom.

Variety says that FNC, with several shows hitting 2014 highs, won in adults 25-54 and total viewers on both a primetime and total-day basis for Monday through Friday of last week. Tune-in was above average across the news board due to coverage of the protests in Ferguson and the murder of James Foley.

Looking at the Nielsen numbers, Fox News averaged 443,000 adults 25-54 in primetime to finish ahead of CNN (361,000) in the key news demo, with both networks more than doubling the tally of MSNBC (179,000). CNN had narrowly won in the demo on Monday and Tuesday, before Fox News asserted itself Wednesday through Friday.

In total-day numbers, FNC averaged 272,000, to 241,000 for CNN and just 106,000 for MSNBC.

The only week to rate higher for Fox News this year was the State of the Union frame in January.

It total viewers it was Fox News (2.25 million in primetime, 1.26 million total-day) beating the combined tune-in of CNN (901,000 in primetime, 690,000 in total-day) and MSNBC (737,000 in primetime, 402,000 in total-day).