Fox News Channel dominated all of cable among viewers across total day and primetime and also finished June by leading CBS and NBC with weekday primetime viewers.
Fox News was the only basic cable option to surpass the one-million viewer benchmark, crushing the competition with an average audience of 1.6 million during the second quarter. ESPN finished second with 664,000 average viewers, followed by MS NOW’s 655,00 and 496,000 for CNN.
During primetime, Fox News averaged 2.5 million viewers to finish No. 1 in all of basic cable by a wide margin, as runner-up ESPN managed only 1.7 million average viewers during the sports-heavy quarter. MS NOW managed 1.1 million average viewers and CNN settled for 711,000.
Fox News has now finished No. 1 among primetime viewership for 98 consecutive quarters, dating back to the first quarter of 2002. Along the way, Fox News attracted nearly 60% of cable news viewers among both total day and primetime.
Fox News also obliterated MS NOW and CNN among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults ages 25-54, averaging 149,000 total day viewers from the key group, compared to 75,000 for CNN and only 67,000 for MS NOW.
It was much of the same during primetime, as Fox News averaged 230,000 demo viewers to outdraw CNN’s 120,000 and MS NOW’s 107,000 combined.
Throughout Q2, FNC delivered 13 of the top 15 shows on cable news with “The Ingraham Angle,” “Jesse Watters Primetime,” “Hannity” and “FOX News @ Night with Trace Gallagher” leading the competition in their respective hours.
FOX NEWS CHANNEL WALLOPS CNN, MS NOW VIEWERSHIP DURING FIRST QUARTER OF 2026
“Special Report with Bret Baier” scored more than 2.7 million viewers and 245,000 in the 25-54 demo, beating “CBS Evening News” in 18 major markets including New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. while continuing to close its gap with the CBS series.
“Gutfeld!” continued its strong performance during the quarter, averaging 2.8 million viewers and 299,000 adults ages 25-54 during the 10 p.m. ET hour, outdrawing every broadcast late-night show, including CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” CBS’ “Comics Unleashed,” NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
“The Five” remained the highest-rated show in cable news for a 19th consecutive quarter, extending its record as the first non-primetime program to do so. “FOX & Friends” also remained the most-watched morning lineup in cable news for the second quarter.
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Fox News maintained its lead over the weekend, with Kayleigh McEnany’s “Saturday in America,” “Fox News Live,” “The Big Weekend Show” and “My View with Lara Trump,” the latter coming in as the most-watched show in primetime. “FOX News Saturday Night with Jimmy Failla” and “Life, Liberty & Levin” also followed with approximately 1.3 million viewers each.
Maria Bartiromo’s “Sunday Morning Futures” also became the top-rated show of the weekend with 1.9 million viewers. “The Sunday Briefing,” hosted by Peter Doocy and Jacqui Heinrich, also earned 1.6 million viewers with “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy” averaging 1.7 million viewers. “Life, Liberty & Levin” and “One Nation with Brian Kilmeade” each also saw 1.5 million viewers.
During June, Fox News averaged 2.6 million weekday primetime viewers to outdraw both NBC and CBS. Fox News also secured the top spot in cable among Hispanic, Asian and upscale audiences in total day for both second quarter 2026 and the month of June.
