In a major ratings shakeup, there’s a new king of primetime on Fox News channel.
Move over, Tucker Carlson. Jesse Watters’ 5:00 p.m. show he co-hosts, “The Five,” and his 7:00 p.m. Eastern primetime show, “Jesse Watters Primetime” and the number one and two shows on cable television, respectively.
“The Five” — regularly the number one show on cable — scored a stunning 3,589,000 viewers on Friday. In comparison, CNN’s competing program, “The Situation Room” had just 853,000 viewers at the same time.
Watters’ own show grabbed 3,298,000 viewers at the 7:00 p.m. spot, beating Carlson’s 3,218,000 viewers on Friday night. Bret Baier’s “Special Report with Bret Baier” came in third at 2,843,000 and Sean Hannity’s “Hannity” was fourth at 2,53,000.
It was an overall sweep for Fox News, with Laura Ingram and Greg Gutfeld — also a co-host of “The Five” — rounding out the top 7 cable news shows in the United States on Friday.
Watters, 43, started with Fox News in 2002 as a production assistant and quickly gained an on-air role conducting man-on-the-street interviews for then-Fox star Bill O’Reilly.
Watters was first elevated to his own weekend show and a role on “The Five” in 2017.
That talk show, with the format of four conservative commentators and one Democrat talking about the news of the day, has surged in popularity, consistently reaching more viewers than Fox’s primetime lineup.
Gutfeld started his own late-night show on Fox last year, while Dana Perino co-hosts a morning show.
Watters was given the 7:00 p.m. primetime spot at the beginning of 2022 after Fox News spent a year testing out various guest hosts.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article