Fox News Channel’s popular morning show, “Fox & Friends,” is closing in on “CBS Mornings” despite having a fraction of the broadcast network’s distribution.
The latest Nielsen Media Research audience numbers show just how much Fox News has closed the gap with CBS over the past year. “CBS Mornings” viewership declined 13%, while “Fox & Friends” grew 4%. The CBS morning show averaged 1,591,000 viewers for the week of July 13, compared with 1,460,000 for its cable news competitor.
A year ago, in July 2025, CBS held a 30% viewer advantage over Fox & Friends. That lead has since shrunk to just 9%—a gap of 131,000 viewers—during the week of July 13.
It was the lowest-rated week in “CBS Mornings” history and the first time the program dropped below 1.6 million viewers. Its audience among adults 25-54, the demographic advertisers pay a premium to reach, fell to 220,000—also a low.
The story doesn’t get much better for “CBS Evening News.” The nightly newscast posted its second-lowest-rated week since Tony Dokoupil became anchor. For the third straight week, “CBS Evening News” viewership dropped below 4 million, and the show averaged 471,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic—the eighth week in a row it failed to top 600,000.
Fox News Tops Broadcast Rivals
Fox News Channel finished the week of July 13 with 2.9 million weekday primetime viewers and 293,000 in the 25-54 demo, beating all three broadcast networks. NBC finished with 2.5 million viewers, ABC had 2.4 million, and CBS rounded out the three with 2.1 million, according to Nielsen Media Research data.
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“The Five,” which celebrated its 15th anniversary on Fox News, continued to lead all cable news programming with 3.4 million viewers. Fox News reported the show has grown its audience 154% since its 2011 launch.
Greg Gutfeld’s late-night show easily beat its competition. “Gutfeld!” drew 2.6 million total viewers, topping NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (1.4 million), CBS’ “Comics Unleashed” (806,000), and NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” (799,000). ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” had its lowest-rated week of 2026, averaging 1.4 million total viewers and 192,000 in the 25-54 demo.
Leading the Cable News Competition
Fox News also led all of cable news for the second quarter of 2026, averaging 2.5 million primetime viewers and commanding nearly 60% of the cable news audience in both total day and primetime—ahead of CNN and MS NOW combined.
Fox News drew 2,628,000 weekday primetime viewers in June, beating two broadcast networks: NBC had 2,419,000 and CBS finished with 2,049,000, according to Nielsen data.
In June, both CBS and NBC recorded their lowest weekday primetime totals of the century in the 25-54 age demographic, with 261,000 and 396,000 viewers, respectively.
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