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Fox News And ‘The Five’ Top January Ratings, Blow Away CNN and MSNBC

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


The wins keep stacking up for Fox News and one of the network’s most popular hosts.

Fox News dominated in the January cable news ratings, drawing more viewers, on average, than both CNN and MSNBC combined. Jesse Watters was part of two shows — The Five and Jesse Watters Primetime — that were in the top 5 for viewership in January.

“Fox News still led in total day viewers, averaging 1.35 million viewers, which was down 4% from the same month a year earlier. MSNBC averaged 703,000, up 7%, while CNN posted 524,000, up 7%. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 173,000, down 23%, while CNN was up 7% with 107,000 and MSNBC rose 5% to 78,000,” Deadline reported.

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.

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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%.

Last week, Fox News got fantastic news about one of its flagship shows, “The Five.”

The show has become the most watched show in cable news, averaging a total audience of 3.332 million viewers for the week that ended January 22nd, Nielsen ratings showed, Forbes reported.

“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 reported: “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).”

And its morning show, “Fox & Friends” crushed its competitors with a total audience of 1.260 million viewers as the MSNBC show “Morning Joe” averaged 760,000 viewers and “CNN This Morning” had its worst week with 331,000 viewers.

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Watters, who is a co-host on “The Five” and now has his own show on the network, has also been performing well at the network.

Waters, who took over as the permanent host of the 7 PM EST weekday time slot on Fox News, recently spoke about his new show and gave an idea of what he envisions for the program long-term.

He said that it would be “an entertaining hour with news and politics and culture, crime, tabloid — everything.”

“We’re also going to be debuting something,” he said. “You know how my mom’s always texting me? We didn’t think that was fair for just my mom to be able to text me, so we’re going to be putting out a number where the whole country can text me. We’re going to have an open line of communication with the country, so I’ll be listening to them.”

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He promised that his viewers would play an active role in the show.

“That’s what the show is about: Listening and then rallying for the people. We’ll be having a segment at the end of each show where I will be putting people’s texts on the air and I’ll be responding to them because we want to hear from the people,” the host said.

“I’m going to be deciding the entire hour what I want to do. It’s my show,” the host said. “The producers on ‘The Five’ usually kind of set the rundown, with some input from the hosts … and it’s a very entertaining show and that’s why people tune in, but this more of a solo hosting gig and this is my hour so I’m going to be doing topics that I care about, whether it’s getting fatter paychecks, whether it’s controlling the border, whether it’s political correctness.”

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