OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Fox News host Dan Bongino’s show on Saturday night garnered the highest ratings across all cable news primetime shows, according to a new report.
Bongino’s show drew in 1.199 million total viewers during the 9 p.m. ET time slot, while CNN had 609,000 and MSNBC had 431,000 viewers. Meanwhile, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade received 1.19 million total viewers during the 8 p.m. ET time slot, while CNN had 529,000 viewers and MSNBC had 463,000 viewers in the same slot.
Bongino’s show also emerged as the most-watched primetime show in cable news.
In the 9 p.m. ET time slot, Bongino’s show garnered 1.19 million total viewers, while CNN and MSNBC had 219,000 and 315,000 total viewers, respectively. At 8 p.m., Brian Kilmeade’s show on Fox News brought in 1.06 million total viewers, with CNN and MSNBC trailing at 282,000 viewers each.
Fox News’ @dbongino had America’s most-watched cable news show during Saturday primetime pic.twitter.com/5dKdCA9LNz
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) February 28, 2023
Other programming on Fox News has dominated time slots as well.
According to a recent report from the Washington Times, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld’s show “Gutfeld!” has been dominating late-night television, averaging 2.1 million viewers through 2022, according to Nielsen Media Research.
“The size of that viewing audience bests both NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon’ and ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ and also consistently trumps such cable rivals as Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show’ and HBO’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ and ‘Real Time With Bill Maher,’” the report said.
Fox News Channel’s daytime daily line-up of programming continues to dominate the cable news industry as well. In recent weeks, “The Five” became the most-watched program in the coveted advertiser demographic of 25-54 age group, scoring 390,000 viewers. This was much higher than Jake Tapper’s 128,000 viewers on CNN and an unmeasurable figure for MSNBC in the same 5 p.m. EDT slot, according to AdWeek.
Fox News was the dominant cable news network in January as well, averaging more viewers than both CNN and MSNBC combined. Host Jesse Watters appeared in two shows that made the top 5: “The Five” and “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
The outlet added:
The Five was the top show in total viewers, averaging 3.38 million, followed by Tucker Carlson Tonight with 3.19 million, Jesse Watters Primetime with 2.84 million, Hannity with 2.57 million, and Special Report with Bret Baier at 2.42 million.
In the 25-54 demo, Tucker Carlson Tonight averaged 448,000, followed by The Five with 379,000, Jesse Watters Primetime with 319,000, Hannity with 307,000, and Gutfeld! at 301,000.
Fox News averaged 1.95 million viewers, down 13%, while MSNBC posted 1.05 million, down 9%, and CNN was at 629,000, down 1%. In the 25-54 demo, CNN averaged 144,000, which was up 3%. That still trailed Fox News, which averaged 239,000, down 29%. MSNBC posted 109,000, down 16%.
“After The Five, the highest-rated shows of the week were Tucker Carlson Tonight (3.086 million viewers), Jesse Watters Primetime (2.647 million viewers), Hannity (2.386 million viewers), and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.367 million viewers)—all airing on the Fox News Channel,” the report said.
Forbes added: “In prime time, Fox News led the cable news networks with an average total audience of 1.996 million viewers—beating CNN and MSNBC combined. Overall, Fox had fully 92 of the 100 highest-rated cable news telecasts for the week. Among viewers 25-54, the demographic group most valued by advertisers, Tucker Carlson Tonight was first with 442,000 viewers, followed by The Five (374,000 viewers), Hannity (303,000 viewers), Jesse Watters Primetime (266,000 viewers) and Special Report with Bret Baier (256,000 viewers).”
Host Tucker Carlson is also blowing away rivals. New ratings show that Carlson is annihilating his competition as the highest-rated cable news show in primetime, Mediaite reported.
“Tucker Carlson led the ratings with 3.72 million total viewers, beating out The Five — which regularly lands atop the charts. Jesse Watters came in third place with 3.16 million total viewers, while Sean Hannity came in fourth with 3.08 million total viewers. MSNBC’s top-rated show was All in with Chris Hayes which brought in 1.66 million total viewers.”
In the coveted 25 – 54 demographics, Fox News led again with 246,000 to MSNBC’s 113,000 and CNN’s 104,000 for the day.
And the primetime numbers were as impressive in the same demographic with Fox News leading with 421,000, far ahead of MSNBC and CNN with 148,000 and 139,000 respectively.
