Fox News Programming Dominates the Competition As Cable News Sees Quarterly Ratings Drop

Fox News

Fox News had a dominant showing despite the cable news industry as a whole seeing a slight dip in viewership in the second quarter of 2026.

Over that time period, Fox News had the highest total day viewership average at 1.575 million from Monday to Sunday. Although that figure was an 8% decrease from the first quarter of 2026, it more than doubled MS NOW’s (655,000) and CNN’s (500,000 total viewership). CNN saw the sharpest quarterly decline in viewership at 13%, while MS NOW had the smallest drop at 5%.

In the primetime slot, Fox continued to lap the field. Between the hours of 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., the network averaged nearly 2.5 million total viewers and saw only a 4% dip from the first quarter of 2026. MS NOW was again a distant second with an average of 1.063 million (4% decrease), while CNN finished third with average of 716,000 (10% decrease).

When it came to the most-watched programs of the quarter, Fox had a clean sweep of the top five. The Five took the top spot with an average viewership of 3.575 million in Q2 2026, with Jesse Watters Primetime right behind at 3.232 million. Rounding out the top five were Gutfeld! (2.837 million), Hannity (2.799 million), and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.723 million).

MS NOW’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell landed at no. 16 for the quarter, narrowly edging Fox & Friends. The network also had the only non-Fox program in the top 10. The Rachel Maddow Show, which airs only once a week and has just a fifth of the total episodes as the other shows around it, and an average viewership of 2.17 million.

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