What an accomplishment — your cable television show is only 8 months old and it’s in the top five in the ratings. And another show on which you’re featured is also in the top five.
It’s happening for Jesse Watters.
“Jesse Watters Primetime,” which Fox launched in January, was No. 5 in the important age 25 to 54 demographic on Wednesday, Showbuzz Daily reported. The other program featuring Watters, “The Five,” was rated fourth.
According to Fox News, July was the 18th straight month in which the network led cable ratings. Fox had “the largest audience of adults age 25-54 among both total day and primetime.”
Watters’ programs join other heavy hitters in the Fox lineup, including “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the top cable news program.
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In overall cable programming, “Hannity” came in seventh, “The Ingraham Angle” 13th, “Gutfield!” 14th and “Special Report with Bret Baier” 18th. All these shows are in primetime except for “Special Report” and “Gutfield!”
Other news competitors? You’ll have to go far down the list to find “CNN Tonight” at 25th and “Anderson Cooper 360” at 27th, both in primetime.
No MSNBC program broke the top 50.
Watters joined Fox in 2002 and worked as a correspondent for “The O’Reilly Factor,” according to Deadline. In 2017, he received his own program, “Watters World,” and joined “The Five.”
Have you seen “Jesse Watters Primetime”?
“Jesse Watters Primetime” debuted as Fox’s most-watched 7 p.m. broadcast in over a year. The premier garnered 3.8 million viewers, far outstripping programs like CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” and MSNBC’s “The ReidOut.”
In December, health guru Dr. Anthony Fauci said Watters should be “fired on the spot” for remarks he made at a conservative conference. Watters used figurative words like “kill shot” and “ambush” when he urged citizens to bombard Fauci with questions about his funding of “risky research at a sloppy Chinese lab,” NPR reported.
Fox defended Watters in a statement, saying, “Jesse Watters was using a metaphor for asking hard-hitting questions to Dr. Fauci about gain-of-function research and his words have been twisted completely out of context.”
That controversy aside, Fox has to be happy about how its programs are performing.
In April, Sean Hannity became the longest-tenured primetime cable news host in history, the network announced in a news release. Hannity has been with Fox’s cable operation since it began in 1996.
Also, Greg Gutfeld is the new king of late-night TV, beating out such personalities as Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel in the 11 p.m. time slot.
CNN, meanwhile, appears to have taken heed of the saying that when you are digging yourself into a hole, you need to stop digging.
After its streaming service CNN+ went down in flames, the network recently cut loose commentator Brian Stelter and his “Reliable Sources” program, with more big names rumored to be on the chopping block.
