Fox's 'The Five' scores rare win for daytime; NFL takes top

NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel's prime-time lineup gets plenty of attention, but, lately, the network's viewers have been drawn to an early-bird special.

In October, Fox's “The Five” eclipsed every show on cable news in popularity for the first time ever, the Nielsen company said. That's highly unusual for a program that airs at 5 p.m. Eastern and in the midafternoon on the West Coast; the number of people watching television typically increases in prime time after the workday is done.

Yet during October, “The Five” averaged 3.11 million viewers, narrowly beating Fox's “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which had 3.08 million, Nielsen said.

The colorful, often sarcastic panel show features four people offering a conservative point of view on issues of the day, with one Democrat trying to get a few words in. Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters and Dana Perino are regular cast members, with one other conservative voice rotating in.

The show recently lost Juan Williams as a Democratic regular. Recent shows have cycled in Harold Ford, Jr., Geraldo Rivera or Jessica Tarlov as contrarian voices.

“The Five” started as a temporary fill-in a decade ago after Fox cut ties with Glenn Beck in the time slot but has proven durable. Fox tested the show in prime time a couple of years ago, but its audience didn't move with it.

All five episodes of “The Five” last week reached at least 3 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Behind a Thursday night NFL game and the Atlanta Braves' World Series-clinching win, the Fox broadcast network won the week in prime time. Fox averaged 6.9 million viewers, with NBC at 5.2 million, CBS at 4.9 million, ABC at 2.8 million, Univision at 1.3 million, Ion Television at 890,000 and Telemundo at 820,000.

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