Bret Baier’s Zelensky interview draws over 6 million viewers, beating broadcast nightly news shows
Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier’s timely sitdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dominated Friday evening’s ratings and even outdrew the nightly news programs of two broadcast networks.
According to Nielsen Media Research, Special Report with Bret Baier attracted 6.2 million viewers and 775,000 in the key 25-54 advertising demographic during the telecast’s first half-hour, which is when Baier’s interview with Zelensky aired. The interview peaked with 6.4 million viewers and 855,000 in the demo during the 6-6:15 p.m. ET quarter.
The interview naturally drew increased interest as it occurred just hours after the explosive White House clash between Zelensky and President Donald Trump, which featured Vice President JD Vance berating the Ukrainian president as “disrespectful” while accusing him of not thanking the administration.
Despite the fireworks in the Oval Office, which culminated in Trump booting Zelensky from the White House without signing a mineral rights deal, the Ukrainian leader told Baier that he remained hopeful that his relationship with the president could be salvaged.
“It’s more than two presidents. The historical relations, strong relations, between our people,” Zelensky said. “This is the most important—and of course [we’re] thankful to the president and to Congress—but first of all to your people. Your people helped to save our people.”
With viewers flocking to Fox News to see Zelensky’s first reaction to the White House blowup, a broadcast news show that typically draws millions of more viewers than Special Report found itself slightly behind Baier’s newsmaking interview.
NBC Nightly News, which averaged 6.8 million total viewers and 1.03 million in the key demo this past month, pulled in 5.76 million viewers during its 6:30-7 p.m. time slot on Friday night. CBS Evening News, which has suffered a ratings drop since it changed to a two-anchor format following Norah O’Donnell’s departure, averaged 3.9 million viewers for the evening. The program had been attracting a nightly audience of 4.6 million in recent weeks.
In general, broadcast and cable news see a drop off in ratings on Friday evening, explaining why CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News – which also didn’t have the benefit of an exclusive Zelensky interview – were below their average ratings.
For the entire hour, Special Report pulled in a total audience of 5.7 million viewers and 661,000 in the 25-54 demographic. Baier’s show, which is averaging 3.5 million viewers and 414,000 in the advertising demo in 2025 so far, was up 63 percent in total viewership and 60 percent in the key demo. It was also the second highest rated 6 p.m. hour in Fox News history, ranking only behind the 2017 Trump inauguration.
Special Report, like the rest of Fox News’ lineup, has seen its ratings soar since Trump won in November. The conservative cable giant just experienced the highest rated February in the network’s history, averaging 3.09 million viewers in primetime. The rest of the cable news landscape, meanwhile, is only now starting to see its viewership climb back to pre-election levels after experiencing an exodus following Trump’s victory.
Besides the Zelensky interview, Baier also recently sat down with French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Additionally, with Fox News enjoying a closely intertwined relationship with the White House — nearly 20 former Fox employees hold positions in the administration — it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a number of Trump administration officials and Cabinet members have appeared on Baier’s show in the past few weeks.
The record-setting ratings that Fox News is experiencing due to Trump’s return to office prompted Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch to say during a recent conference that the right-wing network should be considered more than a cable news channel.
“It’s important to note that we don’t see Fox News anymore as just a news service. We see it as one of the top five broadcast networks in the United States, even though we don’t have the same distribution that broadcast has,” Murdoch told the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Monday.
“In January and February, we were the number two broadcast network, right? Equivalent to the number two broadcast network at Fox News,” he added. “Despite having a much smaller universe in cable. 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.”
