If longtime “The Five” host Geraldo Rivera thought the show was going to struggle without him, he’s sadly mistaken.
The hit Fox News show “The Five” continues to crush all cable news programs in the ratings, particularly recently since the longtime liberal co-host left the network. Rivera reportedly left the network amid disputes with former hosts. Some reports have suggested Rivera was constantly clashing with co-host Greg Gutfeld.
The popular program dominated MSNBC and CNN in the 5 PM ET timeslot this week. The show has been leading its rivals at MSNBC and CNN by double digits for over a week, which comes as longtime co-host Geraldo Rivera left.
On Tuesday, “The Five” brought in 2.7 million total viewers compared to CNN’s Jake Tapper getting 864,000. The “total day” viewership wasn’t close either as Fox News averaged 1.440 million, CNN was at 629,000, and MSNBC had 1.154 million for Tuesday.
Rivera, a longstanding liberal personality, announced late last month that he would be leaving the network.
Fox & Friends” played a montage of Rivera’s greatest moments and a host of Fox News personalities spoke about the longtime media personality and what he meant to them.
“I feel emotional and deeply moved. I will always remember this morning. It is something that I didn’t expect. This celebration is beyond anything we’ve ever done,” he said after the montage played. “Thank you. I am deeply – I am honored. I love Fox and the people at Fox. I always will. I will never let anyone separate us. I am beyond grateful, I love you for it.”
“We reached an amicable conclusion with Geraldo over the past few weeks and look forward to celebrating him tomorrow on Fox & Friends which will be his last appearance on the network,” a Fox News spokesperson told Mediaite.
Fox News has rebounded well in recent months since revamping its primetime line-up.
“FOX News Digital finished July 2023 delivering gains year-over-year with multiplatform views, minutes, and unique visitors according to Comscore. July marked 10 consecutive months of FOX News Digital as the top news brand with multiplatform views and 29 straight months as number one with multiplatform minutes. Notably, CNN.com was down over 20% year-over-year with multiplatform minutes. FOX News Digital closed out the month reaching 3 billion total multiplatform minutes, 1.7 billion total multiplatform views, and 83 million multiplatform unique visitors.* FOX News Digital was the top news brand with 3.2 average views per visit, marking the best month FOX News Digital has seen in this metric. Additionally, the FOX News Mobile App reached 5.9 million unique visitors in July,” Fox News said in a press release.
