Sean Hannity became emotional on air as Fox News celebrated its 30th anniversary
with a historic ratings advantage over its cable news competitors. The longtime host
thanked viewers during a look back at his career, visibly moved by the occasion. Fox reached
the milestone while drawing a larger television audience than CNN and MS NOW combined.
The anniversary segment aired on “Hannity” on Wednesday, October 7th, marking three decades
since Fox News Channel launched in 1996. Hannity began that first day as co-host
of “Hannity & Colmes” alongside Alan Colmes. He later took over a solo hour in January 2009,
continuing a primetime television career that has spanned the network’s entire history.
Hannity addressed the audience before introducing footage from his years at Fox, thanking
the viewers who had welcomed him into their homes each evening. He described his time
at the network as an honor and acknowledged that the retrospective would include moments
that could embarrass him. “This network has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams, beyond measure,” he said.
As The Western Journal reported, the anniversary presentation included clips from Hannity’s career,
revisiting interviews, guests and major events he’d covered. Fox also shared the emotional segment
on its official X account Thursday. The host’s tribute arrived as the network’s audience figures
showed a commanding advantage over the two cable outlets that have competed against it for decades.
According to Nielsen figures reported by Axios, Fox averaged 1.69 million total-day viewers in 2025,
against 551,000 for MS NOW and 432,000 for CNN. Its primetime average reached 2.65 million,
compared with 915,000 and 573,000, respectively. Through September 29th, 2026, Fox continued
to surpass both competitors combined across total-day and primetime viewing.
Hannity had already passed another television milestone in April 2022, when Fox announced
that he’d broken Larry King’s record as the longest-running primetime cable news host. His programs
had also produced repeated ratings victories: “Hannity & Colmes” overtook King’s show among viewers
in 2003, while Hannity’s solo program led cable news in total viewers from 2017 through 2020.
Celebrating the record in 2022, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said, “A FOX News original, he has
helped innovate the industry, and we are incredibly proud of his extraordinary success.”
Watch Hannity’s emotional anniversary tribute here:
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Fox’s broader winning streak reached 24 consecutive years atop cable news in January 2026,
according to the network’s ratings announcement. That month, it averaged 2.4 million viewers
in weekday primetime, ahead of CBS’s 2.2 million, and accounted for 98 of the 100 most-watched
cable news telecasts. Across the full day, Fox averaged 1.4 million viewers and held nearly 60%
of the cable news audience share that January. Hannity’s own 9 p.m. program averaged 2.5 million
viewers, including 240,000 in the advertiser-focused 25-to-54 age group.
Commentator Clay Travis marked the anniversary with an October 7th post praising the network’s
business success. He pointed to the size of Fox’s advantage over CNN and MSNBC, using
the latter network’s former name. Travis called Fox “one of the greatest media business
successes — maybe the greatest — of all time.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.