The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter takes a look at the rise of “The Five,” Fox News Channel’s temporary-turned-permanent replacement for Glenn Beck in the 5pmET hour. Among other things, Stelter takes a look at how the newest addition to the FNC primetime lineup stacks up to its predecessor:
In his final month on Fox, Mr. Beck had an average of 1.6 million viewers; the following month, “The Five” had fewer than 1.3 million.
It has steadily gained audience share since then, and in mid-September Mr. Ailes made the show permanent. So far this month it had 1.6 million daily viewers, matching Mr. Beck’s final numbers for the first time.
Advertisement“Not having a host, just in and of itself, is a departure for cable news,” said Mr. Beckel, who commutes to New York weekly from Washington to be on the show. Viewers, he said, “are looking all day long at cable news and they’re seeing guest, host, guest, host — and this is a departure from that.”