Fox News Channel's Panel Show ‘The Five' Just Made Cable News History
Katie Pavlich couldn't resist raving at one point during Thursday's episode of The Five that the House of Representatives' passage that same day of President Trump's domestic policy bill represented a 'big, beautiful win for America.'
Appropriating the same rhetorical flourish that Trump himself popularized in reference to the nearly 900-page budget reconciliation package, Pavlich then went on to poke fun at Democrats for 'throwing a hissy fit' over their legislative loss. In response to a tweet from President Biden that was put on the screen for viewers of The Five, Pavlich continued: 'Joe Biden campaigned on being a moderate and governed like a far-left lunatic, essentially, and a lot of this bill takes back a number of things that he implemented during his term.'
That kind of sharp commentary, mixed with rapid-fire hot takes about the day's news from a rotating panel of hosts, is the simple formula that Fox News Channel's 5 p.m. talk show has parlayed into cable news dominance. And enough viewers keep tuning in to the show to hear panelists break down the news that it's not only become a ratings juggernaut for Fox — The Five also just made television history in the second quarter of this year:
It's now the first non-primetime program ever to finish as the most-watched cable news offering for 15 consecutive quarters.
The Five, Fox News' ratings giant
Look even closer at the second quarter ratings data, and the trend gets even more interesting: At a time when CNN just saw its worst quarter in history in terms of viewership in the key demo, the parent network of The Five just finished its second highest-rated second quarter in history among weekday total day viewers, behind only 2020's coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fox News now owns 62% of the total day cable news audience and 63% in primetime.
Both CNN and MSNBC, meanwhile, not only saw double-digit declines in their audiences during the quarter, according to Nielsen data — those two networks are also set to be spun off by their respective parent companies, while The Five alone grew its viewership in the 25-54 demo 52% year-over-year.
It's hard to overstate just how crucial the show has become to Fox's daily program schedule. In the second quarter, The Five also surpassed a slew of major broadcast programs, with Nielsen estimates revealing that The Five outperformed everything from the CBS Evening News to NBC's Law & Order, and CBS' NCIS: Origins — programs that boast a much larger reach in terms of broadcast households. Yet despite being available in far fewer homes as those broadcast giants reach, The Five consistently outranked them, delivering an average of 3.9 million total viewers and 410,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demo.
Those numbers reveal two important facts: The Fox talk show is capturing not only traditional cable news audiences but also viewers in the younger, more sought-after demographic. And it's still doing so almost 15 years after its debut.
The fact that the show has seen a steady number of guest hosts cycle on and off the panel over the years is also further evidence that the formula itself is strong enough to keep viewers coming back. Considering the fact that when The Five originally premiered in July 2011 it was as a replacement for Glenn Beck's show and only meant to run during the summer, the show's success is all the more remarkable.
It quickly outperformed expectations, winning its time slot and scoring a permanent renewal just a few months after its debut. Since then, the ratings trend line for The Five has only really flowed in one direction — up and to the right.
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