The audience for Ari Melber’s show on MSNBC has grown in the past year. The biggest draw on Fox News is not Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity; it’s “The Five,” the 5 p.m. chat show that, except for live sports and the hit drama “Yellowstone,” was last year’s most-watched program on all of cable TV.
“The biggest show on earth, the Trump administration, is over for now,” said Mosheh Oinounou, a former “CBS Evening News” executive producer. “It’s no different from traditional TV; the plot is less interesting, and some of the characters have left the show.”Americans older than 65 are the core audience of 24/7 news channels, but these older viewers are increasingly turning to streaming platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime for their entertainment.
CNN’s 9 p.m. audiences fell after Chris Cuomo, once the network’s highest-rated anchor, was fired in 2021. Last fall, Licht tried reviving the 9 p.m. slot by moving Tapper from 4 p.m. After just six weeks and dismal ratings, Tapper returned to the afternoons, where his show, “The Lead,” now regularly attracts more viewers than CNN’s evening programs.
These trends are playing out amid a broader drop in overall viewership in cable news. In 2022, MSNBC’s prime-time audience declined 21% from a year prior, and CNN lost 33%.
I listen to the Five. It’s like listening to folks in bar after work solving all the worlds ills.