OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Popular Fox News host Jesse Watters led two shows on Monday that broke 3 million total viewers. Watters is a longtime co-host of the hit show “The Five” and also hosts his own program “Jesse Watters Prime Time” — both of which are dominating in the ratings.
“As a co-host on The Five, Watters regularly leads one of the top shows on cable news — if not the top show. Monday was no different as The Five scored 3.75 million total viewers to be the most-watched show on cable news. Jesse Watters Prime Time at 7 p.m. also cracked the 3 million mark, with 3.2 million total viewers, landing third overall behind Tucker Carlson’s 3.4 million total viewers,” Mediaite reported.
“The Five” racked up more than 3.7 million viewers on Monday night compared to CNN’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer getting just 595,000 viewers.
“Jesse Watters Primetime” also dominated the 7 PM time slot and hit nearly 3.2 million total viewers. By comparison, MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” with Joy Reid had just shy of 1.2 million viewers and CNN’s OutFront” with Erin Burnett got 640,000.
Suzanne Scott, CEO of FOX News Media, recently spoke very highly of Watters.
“Jesse’s versatility and hosting acumen has grown exponentially over the last five years, and he has developed a deep connection to the audience through two hit shows The Five and Watters’ World. We look forward to watching him expand his connection even further through this new solo weeknight hour,” Scott said.
Watters said, “I’m thrilled to take on this new challenge and am grateful for the opportunity.”
Fox News Digital also finished the third quarter of 2022 as the “top-performing news organization in the competitive set in multiplatform minutes and views according to Comscore.”
“FOX News Digital closed out the quarter delivering over 8.5 billion total multiplatform minutes, over 4.3 billion total multiplatform views, and averaged 80 million monthly multiplatform unique visitors. For the month of September, FOX News Digital was number one in the competitive set with over 2.7 billion multiplatform minutes.** Additionally, FOX News Digital saw over 1.4 billion multiplatform views and nearly 82 million multiplatform unique visitors in September,” Fox News said in a press release.
“FOX News Digital remained the most engaged brand on social media in the competitive set for the quarter, with 104 million total social interactions, notching the 32nd straight quarter (97th consecutive month) FOX News Digital has placed on top, according to Emplifi. Specifically, FOX News Digital drove 46 million interactions on Facebook, 46.3 million interactions on Instagram and 11.9 million interactions on Twitter. Notably this was the 26th quarter in a row (77th consecutive month) FOX News placed first in Instagram interactions and 33rd quarter leading Facebook interactions (97th consecutive month). FOX News also placed first with YouTube video views among news brands for the 5th straight quarter (20th consecutive month), garnering over 848 million video views, according to Shareablee,” the release added.
“For the quarter, FOXBusiness.com drove 425 million multiplatform views, an 18% increase year over year, besting CNN Business for the second consecutive quarter.*** Additionally, the business network delivered 754 million multiplatform minutes (+25% versus the prior year) and averaged 19.8 million monthly multiplatform unique visitors for the quarter. FOX Business was number one in the business news competitive set with YouTube video views with 164 million video views for the quarter, up 77% over last year, according to Shareablee,” the release continued.
