Former “The View” co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck debuted to strong ratings last week, her first as the co-anchor of “Fox & Friends.” The numbers largely maintain the strong start she saw on Monday.
The program averaged 1.27 million total viewers, and 278,000 adults 25-54, up from its previous week, 2013 to date and the same week from a year ago. For comparison, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” was also up in all of those categories (444,000 total viewers, 145,000 A25-54), while CNN’s “New Day” was down in all those categories (273,000 total viewers, 94,000 A25-54). “Fox & Friends” had more viewers than both shows combined, as it would often do before Hasselbeck’s arrival.
Two caveats: It isn’t yet entirely clear how the breaking news of the Naval Yard shooting affected the ratings. Suffice it to say breaking news can sometimes inflate ratings. Friday’s numbers seem to indicate that ratings were unaffected by the drop-off in coverage of the shooting, with “F&F” actually having its second-highest total viewership of the week. NBC’s “Today” also unveiled a highly-publicized new set last week, which may have drawn some viewers away from other networks. We will have the broadcast morning show ratings later this week.
Still, breaking news or not, Hasselbeck’s arrival seems to have jolted some fresh ratings air into FNC’s morning show. The program had been facing year over year declines in total viewers and the demo leading up to her arrival.