Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier–where Zelensky made his first public comments since he was angrily confronted by President Trump and Vice President Vance in the Oval Office–led all broadcast and cable programs Friday, drawing a peak audience of 6.4 million viewers and 855,000 viewers in the key demographic of adults 25-54.
The Oval Office meeting, which aired live and featured Vance accusing Zelensky of not having thanked the American people for supporting Ukraine–and a reporter for a right-wing cable network asking Zelensky was he wasn’t wearing a suit–dominated news coverage Friday evening and through the weekend.
Pressed by Baier about apologizing to Trump, Zelensky stressed that the relationship between Ukraine and the United States was critical to the fight to defend his country from Russia. “I respect president, and I respect American people,” Zelensky said. “And if — I don’t know, if — I think that we have to be very open and very honest, and I’m not sure that we did something bad. I think maybe sometimes some things we have to discuss out of media with all respect to democracy and to a free media, but there are things that where we have to understand the position of Ukraine and Ukrainians. And I think that is the most important thing. Yes, we are partners. You know, we’re very close partners. We have to be fair. We have to be very free.”
Interview beats evening newscasts on NBC and CBS
The Fox interview outperformed both the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, and prime time shows like CBS’ NCIS Sydney (4.4 million viewers) and Fire Country (4.3 million viewers). At 6 p.m. ET, Special Report drew 73 percent of the cable news viewing audience, and represented the network’s second highest-rated 6 p.m. hour on a Friday, trailing only the 2017 inauguration of Donald Trump.
Special Report was up 63% on Friday compared to its year-to-date average, and up 60% in the key demo, according to ratings data compiled by Nielsen.
‘Special Report’ is a destination for world leaders
Special Report has become a go-to destination for world leaders in the second Trump administration, with Baier landing exclusive one-on-one interviews with French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer following their meetings with Trump.
“This is big stuff,” Baier said of his exclusive interviews, telling Semafor’s Ben Smith that “they’re big news events that I think, you know, that should drive a lot of news coverage and not the controversy of the day.”
As for the huge ratings his show has delivered this year–impressive for a show that airs outside of prime time, when networks typically have the highest viewership–Baier said “I don’t think we’re afraid of the audience. We respect the audience. More Democrats and Independents watch Fox than any other network. We’ve had our largest ratings boom in the last month. I think it’s crazy numbers…I’m getting 4 million (viewers) at 6:00 in the evening.”
‘We don’t see Fox News anymore as just a news service’
The powerhouse ratings that Fox News has delivered so far in 2025 have led Fox Corporation executive chair and CEO Lachlan Murdoch to describe Fox News as “one of the top five broadcast networks in the United States” and “we don’t see Fox News anymore as just a news service.”
In remarks made this week at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Murdoch noted that despite having far smaller distribution than the legacy broadcast networks, Fox News was “equivalent to the number two broadcast network” in both January and February. “In January we were only beaten by NBC, and in February we were only beaten by CBS. And so that’s how we view it. And that’s how we’re able to drive, frankly, the affiliate revenue growth that we’ve achieved.”
Asked if that ratings performance was a result of a nationwide shift to the right following Trump’s re-election, Murdoch said no. “Fox News has been the number one news network for 23 years,” Murdoch said. “23 years. So, you know, we see ourselves as a common sense network.”
“We cover stories that we believe – our viewers – are newsworthy and that our viewers are interested in. That hasn’t changed. I think what has changed is perhaps it’s the reverse of what you’re applying in your question, is that the election and the election results have sort of validated Fox News’ position, and we’ve seen that most strikingly in our advertising revenues. We’ve had over 100 new clients since the election – obviously, our ratings are doing tremendously well. Our share is doing tremendous well, over 65% share of the cable news universe. Ratings are up something like 50%. But I think because of the election result, many advertisers have sort of rethought their positioning in this country and understand that the Fox News viewer really does represent middle America. And they’re responding by, with their checkbooks.”
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