Left-leaning news outlets just got some bad news, as ratings for 2025 and the early part of 2026 reveal that Fox News has taken the top 16 rating slots, leaving networks like CNN and MS NOW taking double-digit declines, with midterm elections coming later this year. To make matters worse for the left, they lost big numbers in the key Adults 25-54 demographic in both primetime and total day.
The news is particularly bad for the left as it shows that their propaganda and media apparatus is mostly out of steam ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Whereas it was running full steam ahead in 2018 and thus able to go on the constant attack against then- President Trump, now it is struggling to make much headway against the administration and get leftist voters excited about trying to stop him, something also reflected in the lackluster protests.
In any case, while Fox News has also taken a bit of a hit in the key demographic, it was nowhere near the damage done to its rival networks, with FNC only experiencing single-digit drops in contrast to their falling off cliffs. Reports state that Nielsen big data+ panel for 2025 reveals that Fox News pulled in a whopping 2.652 million viewers during primetime. That’s an increase of 11% compared to the previous year. The right-of-center outlet pulled in 278,000 viewers in the Adults 25-54 demographic, which is down 5% from the previous year.
When it comes to total day figures, Fox averaged 1.692 million total viewers. That’s an increase of 16% compared to 2024 and 180,000 in the key demo, which is down 3%. However, Fox News topped the charts when it came to overall primetime viewers across all cable networks and still took third place in the demo. The network was also crowned the king for total viewers across total day, ranking second in the key demo.
According to TV Insider, MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, pulled in 915,000 total viewers in primetime, a decrease of 15% from 2024. When it comes to the key demo, they only had 80,000 viewers, which is a massive drop of 40% from the previous year in primetime. The total day numbers for the outlet are horrendous, with an average of 551,000, a decrease of 30% and 48,000 key demo viewers, down 43%.
MS NOW took third place in total primetime viewers across all basic cable networks, but slipped from ninth to 19th in the key demo. CNN did a little better, but not much, averaging 573,000 total viewers, a drop of 16% from 2024, in primetime. Total day numbers showed CNN at 432,000 viewers, down 10%, and 70,000 demo viewers, a tumble of 23%.
Among total viewers, CNN came in seventh across all cable networks for 2025 and tenth in the demo. The network stayed in fourth place for total viewers and fell from sixth to seventh in the demo chart. When it comes to programming, Fox News took 14 of the 15 spots for most-watched cable shows of the year. The number one show on the network was The Five, with 4.046 million viewers and 377,000 demo viewers.
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The only show in the top 15 that didn’t belong to Fox was The Rachel Maddow Show on MS NOW, which took 13th place with 1.864 million viewers and landed in 14th in the demo chart with 172,000 viewers. Another big winner for Fox News is Gutfeld!, the network’s answer to late-night talk shows like The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
The program brought in 3.092 million viewers in the 10 p.m. time slot. Fox host Jesse Watters also scored big, with his primetime show coming in second, just behind The Five, pulling in a staggering 3.280 million viewers. President Donald Trump’s favorite morning news program, Fox & Friends, landed in 15th place with 1.780 million viewers.
Watch Jesse Watters skewer Jessica Tarlov here: