After 18 years on the air, Fox News looks to be stronger than ever.
Exactly one year into their new primetime lineup, Fox News is dominating the ratings in news, while also becoming one of the highest rated networks in all of cable.
Fox News has ranked among the top five highest-rated networks 96 percent of the time, Nielsen Media Research reports. They’ve also cracked the top three 82 percent of the time as well.
Much of that success can be attributed to the addition of the “Kelly File,” which took over for “Hannity” in the 9 p.m. slot.
Kelly’s program, while averaging 2.5 million viewers nightly through it’s first year, has delivered greatly for the network, bringing forth the most growth of any cable news program, while increasing its viewership since its debut last October.
In the last quarter, Kelly has ticked up 36 percent in total viewers and 27 percent in the demo (25-54 demographic), according to Nielsen.
Meanwhile, compared to MSNBC and CNN, Kelly is also dominating, garnering more viewers than the two networks combined in both total audience and demographic.
Kelly is also dominating her only true contemporary at the time slot, Rachel Maddow, beating her by wide margins during the third quarter in both total audience and the demo (2297-798 and 401-173, respectively), according to Nielsen.
Fox’s overhaul of primetime included moving Greta Van Susteren’s “On The Record” from 10 p.m. to 7 p.m., and pushing “Hannity” back an hour to 10 p.m. “The O’Reilly Factor” remained steady at 8 p.m., while retaining its spot as the number one rated cable news show.