logo
Fox News Is The Highest-Rated Network In All Of Television This Summer

Fox News Is The Highest-Rated Network In All Of Television This Summer

Forbesa day ago
A Fox News logo is pictured ahead of the first Republican Presidential primary debate at the Fiserv ... More Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 23, 2023. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP) (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images
On Thursday night last week, there was no shortage of tempting options on broadcast and cable television: ABC offered two hours of Bachelor in Paradise . Discovery's 'Shark Week' programming included three back-to-back hours, including Great White Sex Battle and Jaws vs. Mega Croc . And NBC aired a two-hour episode of American Ninja Warrior .
But it was Fox News Channel's lineup of Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham that cruised to prime time ratings victory Thursday, delivering an average total audience of 2.949 million viewers, beating every network in cable and each of the legacy broadcast networks--ABC trailed FNC with 2.915 million viewers, followed by CBS (2.121 million viewers), and NBC (1.787 million viewers).
Fox News was TV's top-rated television network again Friday night.
But Fox didn't just have a couple of good nights. The long-dominant force in cable news has been punching above its weight all summer, seizing the title as the most-watched network in broadcasting.
'It's very satisfying to see that we've worked all these years to build something like this, and now it's right up there beating the other networks,' Fox News President Jay Wallace told me. 'It's not just politics, it's not just hard news, it's not just opinion, it's everything.'
GREENVALE, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 05: Sean Hannity dances during the FOX Nation's Patriot Awards at the ... More Tilles Center on December 05, 2024 in Greenvale, New York. President-elect Trump was in attendance for the Patriot awards where he was the recipient of the 'Patriot of the Year" award. According to Fox the annual awards 'honor and recognize America's finest patriots, including military veterans, first responders and other inspirational everyday heroes." (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) Getty Images
What does it mean if the highest-rated television network in America is Fox News Channel? For Fox Corporation executive chair and CEO Lachlan Murdoch, it means viewers are seeing Fox News the way he sees it: as more than just a cable news channel.
Back in March, Murdoch told the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that "it's important to note that we don't see Fox News anymore as just a news service. We see it as one of the top five broadcast networks in the United States, even though we don't have the same distribution that broadcast has.'
Networks like ABC, CBS and NBC are in far more homes than Fox News, but this summer's ratings show that's not an obstacle to Fox's rise to the top--in the same way that the most-watched show in cable news, FNC's The Five , doesn't even air during prime time, the hours between 8 and 11 p.m. when traditionally, television viewership is the highest.
Fox News 'has become a destination,' Wallace told me. 'The audience knows to come to us."
TOPSHOT - Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with what appears to be blood on his face ... More surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. Republican candidate Donald Trump was evacuated from the stage at today's rally after what sounded like shots rang out at the event in Pennsylvania, according to AFP. The former US president was seen with blood on his right ear as he was surrounded by security agents, who hustled him off the stage as he pumped his first to the crowd. Trump was bundled into an SUV and driven away. (Photo by Rebecca DROKE / AFP) (Photo by REBECCA DROKE/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images 'They all flock to us'
When a gunman attempted to kill Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania a year ago, the story broke on social media during an otherwise quiet weekend afternoon. Within minutes, millions were watching the story on the Fox News Channel. 'It was a Saturday afternoon, four or five o'clock in the afternoon,' Wallace told me, remembering how his network's coverage of the attempted assassination drew an audience of nearly 7 million viewers.
'People will instinctually tune in. It doesn't take long for the momentum to go from social media,' Wallace said, 'for people to turn on their televisions to Fox News.'
TOPSHOT - US President Joe Biden looks on as he participates in the first presidential debate of the ... More 2024 elections with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at CNN's studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images
When CNN hosted the first debate of the 2024 presidential campaign--the night when President Biden's performance doomed his chances at re-election--Fox News drew an audience of 9.28 million viewers, essentially matching that of the host network, which had 9.53 million viewers (more than 51 million viewers watched the decisive debate across 17 separate networks that simulcast the program).
After the debate, Fox News Channel's analysis swamped CNN, with FNC drawing a total audience of 9 million viewers while CNN's audience fell to just 4.4 million viewers. 'Even though we didn't necessarily have (the debate),' Wallace said, 'our pre-and-post game was bigger than what CNN had, and they were the ones that secured it.'
'Even when the audience may not necessarily be all in on whoever is president giving the State of the Union, they all flock to us for the analysis…we've become so familiar with the audience, and I think people are continuing to find us, which is great." 'Ahead of the curve'
Wallace says the Biden-Trump debate also proved that Fox News was 'ahead of the curve' on news stories like the president's cognitive decline that many believe was on display during the CNN debate. 'Brit Hume, for a long time, had said that something wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders with President Biden's cognitive ability,' Wallace said. 'And you know, sure enough, at the end of the day, some of those issues came up in the debate.'
Wallace pointed to other stories--like President Biden's use of an autopen--that were first reported on Fox News before breaking wider across the news media. 'We weren't doing it 24/7, but we're on the record with it,' Wallace said of those stories. 'It just goes to us being on top of the zeitgeist of what's happening.' Forbes Fox News Journalists On Trump's 100 Days: 'I Stopped Counting Days. I Count Hours Of Sleep' By Mark Joyella
'We have two great White House correspondents, Jackie Heinrich and Peter Doocy, and they were there for all the Biden years, and they brought up some of these things, and they were chastised,' Wallace told me. 'But at the end of the day, you know, we pointed these things out first.'
Bret Baier speaks during an interview with Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., during a taping of FOX News ... More Channel's Special Report with Baier, Friday, July 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) Associated Press 'No one rests on their laurels here, I assure you of that'
So far this summer, Fox News programs like Special Report with Bret Baier , Hannity , Gutfeld! , Jesse Watters Primetime and The Five have outpaced broadcast hits like NBC's Law and Order and Law and Order: SVU , CBS' The Price is Right and The Amazing Race , and ABC's Shark Tank .
From Memorial Day through July 14th, Fox News Channel delivered an average prime time audience of 3 million viewers, ahead of ABC (2.8 million viewers), NBC (2.4 million viewers) and CBS (2.1 million viewers). Fox even beat TNT, which had a total audience of 1.76 million viewers in prime, driven largely by the NBA Playoffs.
NEW YORK CITY - JULY 17: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Thursday's July 17, 2025 show. ... More (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images) CBS via Getty Images
And in late night, FNC's Gutfeld! has a year-to-date average audience of 3.161 million viewers, beating all of the broadcast late night hosts, including Stephen Colbert, whose The Late Show on CBS had an average audience of 1.864 million viewers. Colbert announced last week that he'd been told CBS would end the 30-year-old franchise next year. ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! (1.514 million viewers), NBC's The Tonight Show (1.101 million viewers) and Comedy Central's The Daily Show (473,000 viewers) all trailed Fox, according to ratings data compiled by Nielsen.
As Ben Sasse notes in The Wall Street Journal , Colbert's audience--while the largest among the broadcast networks in late night--has dropped 30% over the last five years, and his ratings--like all of the legacy late night hosts--are tiny compared to the 9 million nightly viewers that Johnny Carson delivered at his peak on NBC's Tonight Show.
'I think (the ratings performance) is a feather in the cap to what Rupert and Laughlin have built, and what Suzanne has put together, and what everyone here does in the field, busting their asses, covering tough stories and very sad stories, and wars, and all of it,' Wallace said. 'I think it has paid off, and I think the audience sees that. So we'll just keep working at it and grinding it out. But you know, there are a lot of proud people, but no one rests on their laurels here. I assure you of that.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Sen. John Kennedy, 73, clarifies why he froze up on live TV
Sen. John Kennedy, 73, clarifies why he froze up on live TV

New York Post

time27 minutes ago

  • New York Post

Sen. John Kennedy, 73, clarifies why he froze up on live TV

Soundbite savant Sen. John Kennedy clarified that he didn't suffer a stroke or catch a sexually transmitted disease when he dramatically froze up mid-sentence live on air Tuesday during a Fox Business hit. The one-liner whiz fired back at lefty critics for speculating he suffered a medical scare after what looked like troubling footage of the 73-year-old growing stonefaced went viral on social media. 'Yesterday I was on your show. I enjoyed it. I was just yapping away, and all of a sudden, my earpiece blew up. This one — it sounded like a 747 was taking off,' Kennedy told host Larry Kudlow on Wednesday, motioning to his earpiece. 'Man, my ears are still ringing. Anyway, so I just, assumed we were off air. I just stopped talking, and I didn't start talking again until I could hear you.' A day prior, Kennedy had been discussing the Trump administration's crackdown on sanctuary cities, when suddenly he trailed off mid-sentence before staring blankly off to the side. 4 Sen. John Kennedy wants the world to know that he didn't get an STD live on TV. FOX 4 The Louisiana Republican is famous for his snappy one-liners. REUTERS 'Jesus loves them, but everybody else thinks …' the Louisiana senator riffed before mumbling quietly. 'Everybody else thinks,' he repeated, then turned blankly with his mouth agape. Kudlow then interjected at the time after several seconds of Kennedy looking blankly into the camera and cut him off, claiming there were 'technical problems.' 'That was the same mic we lost with Sen. Rand Paul,' Kudlow added. Paul (R-Ky.) had done an interview on his program before Kennedy and, at one point, complained mid-interview about losing his connection to the program. The Louisiana Republican later returned to the air Tuesday, about half a minute after the incident and was still mired by technical issues and trouble hearing Kudlow. Kudlow seemed to corroborate Kennedy's claim that there was a technical issue, stressing 'I think that's all that happened' and 'a lot of people are making conclusions about your health that they had no business making.' 4 Sen. John Kennedy ripped into coverage of what appeared to be a freeze-up of his live on television. AP 'I don't know, some of the rags up here have they've got all kind of stories that I had a brain freeze live on TV or a stroke or caught an STD live on television or something?' Kennedy quipped about the media speculation after the incident. 'I'm OK, I'm here. I'm back here today. I'm full of piss and vinegar.' When questioned about the incident, Kennedy's office sent a statement to The Post from the senator explaining 'there was a malfunction in my earpiece. 'I heard a loud screeching noise with a lot of static.' Before the clarification, speculation quickly swirled about Kennedy, and some observers drew comparisons to Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) repeated freeze-ups in the public eye. 4 Sen. Mitch McConnell had frozen up several times during the end of his time as Senate GOP leader. AP McConnell's team later chalked up the health scares to a concussion he suffered from a fall in March 2023. The former leader of the Senate GOP later announced that he would not be seeking reelection in 2026. Concerns about the health and vitality of lawmakers have been elevated over recent months. This year alone, three House Democrats died from illnesses or old age. Democrats in particular have been forced to reckon with former President Joe Biden's mental acuity amid a string of new revelations about the 82-year-old's condition.

Another Signal-gate headache for Hegseth
Another Signal-gate headache for Hegseth

The Hill

time27 minutes ago

  • The Hill

Another Signal-gate headache for Hegseth

People familiar with the report told The Washington Post that the attack plans had initially been shared with more than a dozen defense officials via a classified email sent over a classified system by U.S. Central Command head Gen. Michael 'Erik' Kurilla. Hegseth then posted the details in the unclassified Signal group chat directly before Washington launched its attacks on March 15. He also shared the information in a separate chat that included his wife, brother and personal attorney. The military labels material 'SECRET' if unauthorized disclosure could potentially cause serious damage to national security, while 'NOFORN' means the email was not meant for anyone who is a foreign national. The findings from the Defense Department Inspector General's office seems to contradict the Trump administration's repeated, adamant claims that no classified information was shared in the Signal group chats, which were revealed after the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic was inadvertently added to one. The department's inspector general's office began to look into the incident in April after Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee requested it do so. The revelation also offers a new headache for Hegseth, who has faced mounting criticism over the leaked Signal chats, his management style, as well his reported decision to pause military aid to Ukraine without President Trump's approval. In a statement to The Hill on Wednesday, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell doubled down on the claim that no classified information was shared on Signal, calling the 'narrative' 'old and worn out.' 'The Department stands behind its previous statements: no classified information was shared via Signal. As we've said repeatedly, nobody was texting war plans and the success of the Department's recent operations–from Operation Rough Rider to Operation Midnight Hammer–are proof that our operational security and discipline are top notch,' Parnell said, touting the military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen and U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities last month. The Post reported that Kurilla sent his sensitive message over a classified system known as the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet). He included a rundown of strike plans for March 15, including when bombing was expected to begin and what kind of aircraft and weapons would be used. Two people told the Post that they were not aware of any discussions for Hegseth to declassify and downgrade the information Kurilla sent — as government regulations can allow — before he sent it to the Signal chats.

Higgins moves to force vote on censuring McIver after ICE facility clash
Higgins moves to force vote on censuring McIver after ICE facility clash

The Hill

time27 minutes ago

  • The Hill

Higgins moves to force vote on censuring McIver after ICE facility clash

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) on Wednesday moved to force a vote on a resolution to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), who faces charges resulting from a clash with officials at an immigrant detention center. The measure, which spans three pages, calls for McIver to be censured and removed from the House Homeland Security Committee. The move from Higgins came the same day the House broke for a weeks-long August recess, meaning the matter will not be dealt with until September. Under House rules, leadership must act on the resolution within two legislative days, either staging a vote on it, motioning to refer it to committee or motioning to table it. It remains unclear how Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will handle the matter. The House has censured 28 members in its history, with the most recent being Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) in March after he shouted and waved his cane in the air during President Trump's first joint address to Congress of his second term. McIver pushed back on Higgins's resolution, calling the Louisiana Republican 'a bigot who wants to be back in the news.' 'Rs just shut down the House floor early and left to avoid confronting their president's relationship with Epstein. Now they want us to believe they're doing something when they're really running home to hide,' McIver wrote in a thread on X. 'This resolution aims to kick me off the committee that presides over the Department of Homeland Security and shame me for doing the oversight work that is my job. Good luck, Clay.' she added. McIver stands accused of assaulting law enforcement with her forearms during a chaotic clash that ensued after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers began to arrest Newark, N.J., Mayor Ras Baraka (D) outside a New Jersey immigration detention facility in May. McIver was visiting the facility with a group of elected officials. McIver has disputed that she assaulted anyone, and footage of the scrum shows her raising her arms as she's jostled among the competing factions. The crime carries a significant penalty – as much as 16 years in prison if McIver is convicted. House Homeland Security Committee members like McIver, as well as other Democrats, have made a point of visiting detention facilities as the Trump administration seeks to increase immigration arrests after Trump promised the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history. The Department of Homeland Security has since tried to limit lawmaker visits, something Democratic members said was designed to block oversight. Prosecutors — then led by interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba — received significant scrutiny for bringing charges against Baraka that they later dropped. U.S. District Judge Andre Espinosa in a Wednesday hearing said the arrest suggested a 'worrisome misstep' by the New Jersey's U.S. attorney's office, noting the 'apparent rush' in bringing the case that culminated in the government's 'embarrassing' retraction of the charge.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store