Total viewers tell you who is biggest. The Adults 25–54 demo tells you who advertisers pay for — and it is the tighter, more interesting race, so this page leads with it. Every figure below is a published Nielsen number, exactly as reported. Nothing is estimated.
THE DEMO TOP 5 — OCTOBER 2026 (Adults 25–54, monthly averages, as published Oct 28, 2026)
1. THE FIVE (Fox News) — 238,000
2. GUTFELD! (Fox News) — 191,000
3. JESSE WATTERS PRIMETIME (Fox News) — 189,000
4. HANNITY (Fox News) — 184,000
5. SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRET BAIER (Fox News) — 165,000
The only demo ranking published for October so far — the networks released a top 5. The most recent COMPLETE demo chart published in full is September’s, directly below.
THE FULL DEMO CHART — SEPTEMBER 2026 (Adults 25–54, Nielsen Big Data + Panel monthly averages, as published by AdWeek TVNewser, Oct 2, 2026 — 15 programs, 12 rank positions, three ties)
1. THE FIVE (Fox News) — 273,000
2. GUTFELD! (Fox News) — 214,000
3. JESSE WATTERS PRIMETIME (Fox News) — 212,000
4. HANNITY (Fox News) — 204,000
5. THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW (MS NOW) — 186,000
6. SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRET BAIER (Fox News) — 179,000
7. (TIE) THE INGRAHAM ANGLE (Fox News) — 161,000
7. (TIE) THE WILL CAIN SHOW (Fox News) — 161,000
8. OUTNUMBERED (Fox News) — 147,000
9. (TIE) THE FAULKNER FOCUS (Fox News) — 139,000
9. (TIE) THE STORY WITH MARTHA MACCALLUM (Fox News) — 139,000
10. AMERICA REPORTS (Fox News) — 135,000
11. (TIE) AMERICA’S NEWSROOM (Fox News) — 121,000
11. (TIE) CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP (CNN) — 121,000
12. FOX NEWS @ NIGHT (Fox News) — 112,000
Even in the demo, 13 of the 15 programs are Fox News — but the outsiders place higher here than in total viewers: Maddow is No. 5, and CNN’s NewsNight makes the chart. When AdWeek publishes October’s monthly chart in full (expected around Nov 5–6), this section is replaced with it.
THE DEMO RACE THIS WEEK — WEEK OF OCTOBER 19, 2026
AdWeek’s weekly ranker reports its program chart as a graphic and names the leading finishers in its text. The verified Adults 25–54 finishers it names (Nielsen Big Data + Panel):
1. THE FIVE (Fox News) — 235,000
3. THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW (MS NOW) — 186,000
9. CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP (CNN) — 147,000
11. THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O’DONNELL (MS NOW) — 145,000
12. THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS (CNN) — 135,000
Fox News held the other 10 of the week’s top 15 demo spots. By network for the week — primetime Adults 25–54: Fox News 140,000 · CNN 117,000 · MS NOW 111,000; total day: Fox News 103,000 · MS NOW 67,000 · CNN 65,000. MS NOW posted the week’s biggest demo gains (+19% in primetime).
THE TOP 20 — TOTAL VIEWERS, OCTOBER 2026 (Nielsen total viewers, Live+SD monthly averages, as published Oct 28, 2026)
1. THE FIVE (Fox News) — 2,707,000
2. JESSE WATTERS PRIMETIME (Fox News) — 2,344,000
3. SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRET BAIER (Fox News) — 2,022,000
4. GUTFELD! (Fox News) — 1,983,000
5. THE INGRAHAM ANGLE (Fox News) — 1,940,000
6. HANNITY (Fox News) — 1.8M+
7. THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW (MS NOW) — 1.7M
8. THE WILL CAIN SHOW (Fox News) — 1.6M
9. AMERICA’S NEWSROOM (Fox News) — 1.4M
10. THE FAULKNER FOCUS (Fox News) — 1.4M
11. OUTNUMBERED (Fox News) — 1.4M
12. THE STORY WITH MARTHA MACCALLUM (Fox News) — 1.4M
13. AMERICA REPORTS (Fox News) — 1.3M
14. SATURDAY IN AMERICA (Fox News) — 1.1M+
15. FOX NEWS @ NIGHT (Fox News) — 1.1M
16. SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES (Fox News) — 1.0M
17. SUNDAY NIGHT IN AMERICA (Fox News) — 1.0M
18. FOX & FRIENDS (Fox News) — nearly 1M
19. FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND (Fox News) — 949,000
20. THE SUNDAY BRIEFING (Fox News) — 937,000
Just outside: The Big Weekend Show (856,000), Life, Liberty & Levin (849,000), Fox News Saturday Night (835,000). The four shows at 1.4M (ranks 9–12) are tied as published. Ranks 14–20 are provisional — MS NOW’s weekly numbers below suggest movement when a full monthly ranker prints.
THE RACE UNDERNEATH
In total viewers, 19 of the top 20 are Fox News shows, and the lone outsider is The Rachel Maddow Show at No. 7 — a show that airs only on Monday nights.
In the demo, the outsiders climb. Maddow is No. 5 on September’s complete demo chart and No. 3 in the most recent week. CNN places nobody in the total-viewer Top 20 — its whole primetime averages 598,000 — but CNN’s NewsNight ties at No. 11 on the September demo chart and took No. 9 in the latest week, with The Source at No. 12. Invisible in total viewers; visible where the advertising money is.
MS NOW’s climbers are knocking in total viewers too. In the week of October 19, The Last Word drew 1,242,000 total viewers (No. 14) and Deadline: White House 1,163,000 (No. 15) — weekly numbers in range of the monthly chart’s lower ranks.
NETWORK SCOREBOARD — OCTOBER 2026
Fox News: 1,101,000 total day · 1,675,000 primetime — No. 1 in cable news for the 68th straight month, with more than 50% of the cable news audience.
MS NOW: 588,000 total day · 925,000 primetime.
CNN: 402,000 total day · 598,000 primetime.
Sources and method: Nielsen figures as published — the October demo top 5 and the total-viewers Top 20 from Fox News Media’s and MS NOW/Versant’s October releases (Oct 28, 2026; Fox’s chart is Live+SD for the month of October, MS NOW’s is Big Data + Panel for Sep 28–Oct 25); the September demo chart and the week-of-October-19 figures from AdWeek TVNewser (Big Data + Panel). AdWeek publishes its weekly program charts as graphics and names the leading finishers in text; this page prints the finishers it names rather than guess the rest. Ranks 1–5 and 19–20 of the total-viewers chart are exact published figures; the rest are as the networks rounded them. No figure on this page is estimated. This page is updated whenever newer Nielsen reporting is published in full.