Fox News’ The Five Winning Big in 2020 Ratings, Beating Out Cable Rivals and Prime Time Shows

Much has been made about Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson holding the top two shows on cable news this year, eclipsing rivals on other networks, like the longtime ratings juggernaut Rachel Maddow. But 5 p.m. Fox News show The Five, hours before prime time, has had such a strong ratings year that the show currently ranks as the third most watched program on cable news.

According to Nielsen Media Research, The Five has pulled in 3,661,000 total viewers on average this year — placing it at number three on the most popular cable news shows. The show, hosted by Jesse Watters, Dana Perino, Juan Williams, Greg Gutfeld and a rotating fifth co-host, easily bests its competition on CNN and MSNBC, while achieving the rare feat of ranking amongst the prime time shows.

For the year, Fox’s 9 p.m. show Hannity currently retains the top spot with 4,228,000 total viewers, followed by 8 p.m. show Tucker Carlson Tonight with 4,142,000 total viewers.

The Five has outperformed Fox News’ popular 10 p.m. show The Ingraham Angle (3,542,000 total viewers) — which sits at number four on the list — and also pulled in more total viewers on average than CNN and MSNBC’s rival 5 p.m. shows The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer (1,533,000 total viewers) and MTP Daily (1,648,000 total viewers) combined.

In the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demo, The Five also sits at number four on the list of most viewed cable news shows, behind Fox News’ prime time lineup, averaging a whopping 608,000 viewers.

Tucker Carlson Tonight currently sits at the top of the demo ratings with 750,000 average viewers, followed by Hannity (736,000) and The Ingraham Angle (630,000).

In what could be a bid to challenge The Five’s ratings dominance, last week MSNBC announced that Nicolle Wallace’s 4 p.m. show Deadline: White House would be extended an extra hour from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Chuck Todd, who hosted MTP Daily at 5 p.m., was moved to 1 p.m.

At the time, the Washington Post noted that Deadline: White House “has been something of a ratings success story for the network,” and in July “bested its 4 p.m. competitors on both Fox News and CNN in total viewers, with an average of 2 million people tuning in each day,” despite coming “in third in the 25-to-54 viewer demographic.”

Despite those July numbers, however, in 2020 The Five wins by a mile, in both total viewers and the demo.