Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters Dominate Cable News Ratings, MS Now And CNN Notch Prime Time Gains

Screenshots via Fox News

Fox News continued its cable news ratings dominance in April with hosts Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters pulling in the biggest numbers, while CNN and MS NOW also notched prime time gains.

In Monday through Sunday prime time total viewers, Fox averaged 2.9 million viewers and 284,000 in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic. Their totals across the day averaged 1.8 million and 173,000 in 25-54. April marked Fox’s third-most-watched April in the network’s history, according to Nielsen data.

The biggest numbers came from The Five, which averaged 3.8 million viewers, and Jesse Watters Primetime, which averaged 3.6 million. Those were followed by Sean Hannity’s show at 3.2 million and Gutfeld! with 3 million. Bret Baier over on Special Report also averaged around 3 million viewers overall. Those five shows took the top five spots for cable news for the month. Watters and Gutfeld are both co-hosts of The Five as well as hosting their eponymous shows — easily making them the two most-watched personalities in the cable news business.

In the 25-54 demo, Fox also took many of the top spots, though Rachel Maddow’s once-weekly show took fifth with around 280,000. Ahead of her landed Gutfeld! (349,000), Jesse Watters Primetime (335,000), The Five (329,000), and Hannity (319,000).

CNN, meanwhile, declared April the network’s best prime time performance in two years, noting double-digit year-over-year gains.

CNN pulled just under 1 million viewers in prime time, which was a major increase from the just under 600,000 average a year ago. They also noted a 48% increase in the 25-54 demo numbers (122,000 to 181,000). With weekends, CNN’s prime time haul was 910,000 total viewers and 157,000 in the demo.

MS NOW also celebrated gains, with viewership up for them by 20%, year-over-year, in total viewers and up 18% in weekday prime time. They also saw their average in the total day 25-54 demo climb by more than 40%.

In weekday prime time, MS NOW averaged 1.5 million total viewers and 160,000 in the key demo (1.26 million total viewers and 135,000 demo viewers with weekends included).

Rachel Maddow’s show brought in 2.4 million total viewers and the previously-mentioned 278,000 demo viewers, marking the largest audience the Monday show has seen since the fall of 2024.

Morning Joe also brought in its largest audience since the 2024 presidential election, averaging 852,000 total viewers and 94,000 demo viewers for the month. The Briefing with Jen Psaki and The Weeknight have also posted demo gains since their launch last year, averaging 1.4 million and 1.2 million viewers — respectively.

NewsNation also had encouraging numbers, pulling its strongest performance in primetime viewers in the network’s history. In primetime, the network averaged 192,000 total viewers and 27,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo, which represents a year-over-year gain of 170%. The network’s total daytime viewer average, 99,000, also saw a more-than-100% jump compared in April 2025.

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