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President Trump’s return to the White House has coincided with record-setting ratings for Fox News, with the channel enjoying the best quarter in cable news history in terms of total weekday viewership.
Fox News, according to Nielsen Media Research, averaged 2.20 million viewers between Mon-Fri during Q1. That narrowly topped the previous quarterly record, set by Fox News during Q2 2020, when the channel averaged 2.17 million viewers.
When factoring in Saturdays and Sundays, Fox News averaged 1.92 million viewers during Q1 — up 48% compared to Q1 of last year.
Part of Fox News’ big quarter has been the right-leaning channel scoring several exclusive interviews with members of the Trump administration.
Sean Hannity’s interview with Elon Musk and President Trump in February averaged 5.4 million viewers, and Bret Baier scored an interview with Musk and members of his Department of Government Efficiency last week; Baier’s Feb. 28 interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was also a big draw, hitting 6.4 million viewers at its peak.
In terms of primetime performance, Fox News averaged 3.6 million viewers during the week in Q1 — topping NBC and ABC, which both averaged about 3.1 million viewers. Fox News’ primetime viewership, including the weekends, averaged 3.13 million viewers in Q1, putting the channel well ahead of MSNBC, which averaged 1.18 million viewers, and CNN, which averaged 591,000 viewers.
Fox News’ primetime ratings were also up 47% year-over-year, while MSNBC’s ratings were down 10% compared to Q1 2024 and CNN’s ratings dipped 2% from last year.
While Fox News’ weekday performance relative to NBC and ABC is impressive, reps for those channels recently noted the broadcast networks often score their best ratings on the weekends, when sports and many popular shows are aired.
On the other hand, a Fox News source said its weekday lead over the broadcast networks is especially noteworthy, considering the cable channel is available in far fewer homes than the major networks. Fox News is available in 63.6 million households, compared to the 111 million to 120 million the other major networks reach.
For Q1, “The Five” was Fox News’ best-rated show, averaging 4.55 million viewers. “Jesse Watters Primetime” was in second place, with 4.10 million viewers on average, and “Hannity” grabbed the bronze with 3.54 million viewers on average.
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