"The Five" Also Tops Cable News Among Democrats, Independents

Fox News’ “The Five” is now the most-watched daily news program among Democrats, according to new MRI Fusion data obtained by Mediaite.

The long-running roundtable draws an average of 765,000 Democratic viewers per episode — more than the combined total-day audiences of CNN (202,000) and MSNBC (320,000). It also leads among independents with more than 1 million average viewers.

These cross-aisle numbers help explain why “The Five” has been the No. 1 program in all of cable news for the past four years. The show delivered its strongest year ever in 2025 with an average of 4.1 million total viewers and has remained the top-rated cable news program through the first half of 2026.

Co-hosted by Dana Perino, Greg Gutfeld, and Jesse Watters, along with a rotating panel that regularly includes liberal commentator Jessica Tarlov, former Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr., and libertarian Kennedy, the program marked its 15th anniversary this month.

“The Five” began on July 11, 2011, as a temporary summer replacement for Glenn Beck. Strong early ratings convinced Fox News executives to make the Suzanne Scott-created show a permanent fixture in the lineup just months later.