Fox News made a historic cable news announcement this week — their unprecedented ratings dominance across all platforms is complete.
Fox has crushed all cable news competitors while simultaneously defeating major broadcast networks in prime time for three consecutive weeks.
Fox News averaged 2.4 million viewers during primetime from July 7-13, surpassing NBC’s 2.2 million and beating both CBS and ABC with 2 million viewers each. This marks the third consecutive week that Fox News has topped all broadcast networks in prime time.
The network’s success has been consistent this year. Since Memorial Day, Fox News has averaged 3 million viewers in weekday primetime, leading all television including ABC, NBC and CBS. Fox News has also topped broadcast competition among weekday primetime viewership since June 20, the official start of summer.
Fox News has now topped all broadcast competition three times in 2025 for Monday-Sunday primetime and seven times with weekday primetime viewership. The network averaged 1.5 million total day viewers to lead all of cable and aired 97 of the top 100 cable telecasts for the week, despite competing against Wimbledon tennis coverage.
The dominance extends to digital platforms where Fox News has more than doubled its YouTube performance from the same point last year, reaching 2.3 billion views so far in 2025. This surge puts Fox ahead of MSNBC, which had 1.9 billion views. CNN followed in third with 1.1 billion views.
Fox News crushed cable news competitors during the second quarter of 2025, which was filled with historic breaking news events. The network’s breaking news coverage of the U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities led all television, including ABC, NBC and CBS. Fox News was also the ratings leader during breaking news coverage of the death of Pope Francis, the Army 250th birthday parade and other major events.
During the second quarter, Fox News averaged 1.6 million total day viewers to lead all basic cable options while topping MSNBC’s average audience of 596,000 and CNN’s 406,000 combined. Fox News has now been number one in all of cable among total day viewers for 17 straight quarters.
During primetime, Fox News continued to crush all competitors with an average audience of 2.6 million. TNT finished second with 1.7 million, followed by MSNBC’s 1 million. CNN averaged only 538,000 to finish outside the top five cable networks. It was the sixth straight quarter that saw Fox News finish number one among both total day and primetime viewers.
Fox News also dominated the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54, averaging 202,000 total day viewers among the critical group, compared to 71,000 for CNN and only 57,000 for MSNBC. During primetime, Fox News commanded 304,000 average demo viewers while CNN managed only 105,000 and MSNBC settled for 91,000.
The second quarter marked Fox News’ second highest-rated second quarter in network history among weekday total day viewers, behind only 2020’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fox News continued to occupy more than half the cable news share with 62% of the audience among total day and 63% in primetime.
“The Five,” with Dana Perino, Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters, Jessica Tarlov and Harold Ford Jr., averaged 3.9 million total viewers and 410,000 among the demo to lead cable news across the board. “The Five” made history as the first non-primetime program to ever finish as the most-watched cable news offering for 15 consecutive quarters. The show also outdrew key broadcast programs, including “CBS Evening News.”
“Jesse Watters Primetime” averaged 3.4 million total viewers and 396,000 in the demo to finish second in both categories. “Special Report with Bret Baier” dominated its timeslot, averaging nearly three million viewers for the quarter. Baier’s exclusive interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached an audience of 30 million across linear, streaming and social media platforms, including 5.5 million video views across YouTube.
Fox News delivered 14 of the top 15 shows in cable news during the second quarter. “Gutfeld!” topped all broadcast and late-night television, including CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” NBC’s “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” CBS’ “After Midnight” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
“FOX & Friends” and “FOX & Friends First” remained cable news’ most-watched morning shows throughout the quarter, while “America’s Newsroom” with Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer, “The Faulkner Focus,” “Outnumbered,” “America Reports with John Roberts and Sandra Smith,” “The Story with Martha MacCallum” and “The Will Cain Show” all dominated their timeslots among cable news competition.