Fox News Channel's 'The Five'
The most-watched show in all of cable news last week didn’t even air in prime time, when viewership is typically highest. Fox News Channel’s The Five, which airs at 5 p.m. ET, dominated the week’s cable news ratings with an average total audience of 3.742 million viewers for the week ending January 23.
Rounding out the top five most-watched shows in cable news were Tucker Carlson Tonight (3.385 million viewers), Hannity (3.168 million viewers), Special Report with Bret Baier—which also airs outside prime at 6 p.m. ET—(2.708 million viewers) and The Ingraham Angle (2.31 million viewers)—all on Fox.
Fox News had 76 of the 100 highest-rated cable telecasts on the week, and 14 telecasts that drew a total audience of more than 3 million viewers. Neither of Fox’s cable news competition, CNN and MSNBC, had any shows break the 3 million mark. In fact, FNC has been bucking the recent trend of declining cable news viewership, with a year-over-year gain of nearly 10 percent, while both CNN (down 77 percent) and MSNBC (down 63 percent) saw steep declines.
In the key demo of adults 25-54, the demographic most valued by advertisers, the same shows swept the top five: Fox News’ The Five (542,000 viewers), Tucker Carlson Tonight (530,000 viewers), Hannity (449,000 viewers), Special Report (406,000 viewers) and The Ingraham Angle (377,000 viewers).
Overall, Fox News Channel was the top-rated network in all of basic cable on the week in both prime time and total day ratings—the 23rd straight week that FNC has outperformed both CNN and MSNBC combined in total day, according to ratings data compiled by Nielsen.
In prime, Fox News led with a total audience of 2.427 million viewers.
