NEW YORK — Cable news networks had reason to feel bittersweet about the end of 2016 as Donald Trump’s historic campaign for the White House drove their ratings to record levels.

But in the days leading up to his inauguration as the 45th president of the United States, Trump’s continuing love-hate relationship with them provided a compelling sequel.

CNN, Fox News and MSNBC have seen a surprising surge in their audience levels this month as they report in real time on the unpredictable saga of Trump, who can dictate their programming day with his Twitter account.

The cable news networks now will be covering a president whose distrust and ridicule of the media is unlike anything they have seen from a commander in chief.

While it’s apparent Trump’s combative nature is lifting viewer interest, the uncharted territory of is likely to test the journalistic spine of the organizations as well.

“He is the most ripe target for legitimate journalistic investigation that’s come along in decades because of how he so blatantly positions himself as a rule-breaker and a game-changer, a guy that challenges orthodoxy,” said Jonathan Klein, a veteran TV news executive who was president of CNN from 2004 to 2010. “The real journalists out there must be licking their chops about the opportunity to investigate all that,” Klein said.

Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief and director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, said “The conversation has never been more important and the national mood more unsettled, certainly not in decades.”

As a result, an expected post-election downturn in cable news ratings hasn’t happened.

Ratings leader Fox News is up 24 percent this month compared with January 2016, when the presidential primary season was kicking into high gear.

CNN has gained 15 percent in viewership, while MSNBC has increased 36 percent during the same time period, according to Nielsen data.

No matter which way viewers lean politically, their intense interest isn’t likely to subside any time soon.

“Once the public is satisfied that the world is not going to end and a nuclear war is not going to break out or that civil unrest isn’t going to erupt across the country they may reduce their viewing,” Klein said. “But in the first month of the Trump administration they will be sitting at the edge of their seats.